Documentary Filmmaker Yoav Attias & The American Housing Crisis

Yoav Attias is a documentary filmmaker whose projects include Brick City chronicling the inner-workings of Newark, NJ under then-Mayor Cory Booker and CNN's Chicagoland featuring then-mayor Rahm Emanuel. His most recent role is as Director on the new documentary film Fault Lines - which examines the issue of affordable housing in American cities through the prism of several storylines in San Francisco where the housing crisis is especially acute. In this conversation, Yoav talks starting a legal career in South Florida before following his passion to become a documentary filmmaker...what he learned about the politics and challenges facing major American cities working closely around Mayors Cory Booker and Rahm Emanuel...the origin of the Fault Lines film project set in the Bay Area...and a deep dive on the challenges and complexities surrounding the American housing crisis.

IN THIS EPISODE

Yoav's roots in South Florida and why he left a legal career for documentary film-making...

Yoav's involvement in the Brick City project that follows Newark politics, including then-Mayor Cory Booker...

The documentary that deeply inspired Yoav to enter the field...

Yoav's time as showrunner on CNN's Chicagoland project that featured Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel...

Yoav's pitch to pols like Rahm Emanuel and Cory Booker to agree to be filmed for hundreds of hours for a documentary project...

Yoav's relative optimism versus pessimism regarding the trajectory of the modern major American city...

The origin story of his latest project, Fault Lines - a documentary about the housing affordability crisis facing American cities...

How the housing process became so broken in cities like San Francisco in the first place...

The controversy over 100 proposed affordable housing units in San Francisco's Sunset Neighborhood...

How Yoav found housing advocates and a homeless family to participate in Fault Lines...

How one local Bay Area elected official found himself caught in a political vice on the issue of affordable housing...

Is the housing problem better or worse than Yoav initially thought?

The Grateful Dead song that appears toward the end of Fault Lines...

Yoav's take on political ad-making from outside of the political industry...

The recent political documentary Yoav strongly recommends...

AND Mark Benjamin, Anthony Bourdain, Bill Clinton, Todd Davis, Liz Dozier, Fenger High School, field producers, Jerry Garcia, HUD, hippie utopias, Hoop Dreams, hornets' nests, Nate Houghteling, Robert Hunter, Steve James, Flo Kimmerling, Ezra Klein, Marc Levin, Gordon Mar, the Mission, PCE, Section 8 vouchers, Sarah Sherman, toxicology reports, trust-building, undesirables, University of Florida, verité documentaries, Scott Weiner, zoning laws..& more!