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Yes, I'll be telling my own story
but where to begin?
In the first cut
the main character is going it alone
bracing himself for a big adventure
I wouldn't have minded
just letting the first minute pass without any action.
The audience settles in
to being bombarded with 90 minutes of non-stop talking
while the Lower Austrian Film Funding agency
is pleased to see the country already in the spotlight
Seriously?
However, Judith, my TV-editor
urges me to reconsider
The first minute is decisive, she says
it'll determine who's actually going to watch this film to the end
And what better beginning than a character
whose life has reached a complete dead-end?
He dies, or falls ill
But I am protagonist!
The ultimate crisis?
My 40th birthday
I need two attempts to buy wine for the party
Or there's nothing left on the card - maybe that's it?
I need to go back home again
to borrow money off my daughter
The thought haunts me all evening:
40 years old
and too poor for good wine.
Well, that thing with the aunt - I still don't get it.
My sample audience, assembled on the playground
approves to start off with my economic woes
If you don't know how to sustain yourself...
There should be a plan behind it
But robbing a piggy-bank for my 40th birthday?
That's hardly believable
the timing is too good
Happy birthday to you!
And, yeah, it also so happens
that I just staged this party for my camera.
I've repeatedly looted my daughter's saving accounts
and removed far larger sums
Gift voucher for Mexico
Maybe it's better to begin with complete honesty:
Dear Christoph!
my name is Christoph Schwarz
and as you can see I'm clearly such a VIP
that I regularly require new press photos
I'm taking the glasses off
it looks more handsome
I've spent the past years shooting self-obsessed short films.
They didn't earn me much money
but my parents
academic background
always supported me generously.
I'm blessed with a basic financial self-confidence
which I pass onto my children
though all those riding lessons
laptops and sailing permits
are also paid by my parents
Of course that's a video
Which brings me right back to the subject of money.
the starting point of this story
is my annual dinner with Judith.
We were together once, for one summer
Difficult in any case...
Judith worked for ORF3 cultural TV
and always ensured I got my share of film comissions
Now she's moved to documentary
it's exhausting...
We mainly talk about our kids
As ever, Judith saves the biggest news for the end:
A one-year self-experiment, or something like that?
ORF “Striking Years”
Her new TV-format: “Striking Years"
they are still looking for a striking project
related to climate change
Saving the planet
hasn't that always been my thing
at least in theory?
What's the age cut for
up-and-coming in ORF TV?
Until 50?
Until 50?!
Judith has put her finger on a sore spot:
so far, all my actions against climate change
were mostly just symbolic
For example, documenting a dried-up lake
near the hungarian border, together with Franz
I film his kids sliding into a dystopian future
but to get there
we actually borrowed a SUV
Or...
I made a point of documenting every year
of my daughter's young life
with a brand-new camera;
but what if I had made a point of taking
to the streets and protesting against climate change?
No!
So far, my smug, vegetarian, car-free life
always seemed enough
when our planet finally does collapse
at least it won't be entierly my fault
And my wife Michaela?
Since many years, she's been dreaming
of our own house in the countryside
I'm so happy we're talking
because we have no clue!
On our weekends, we visit friends in their country houses
Hey, is there even a men's and women's toilet?
and imagine destilling Schnaps and growing veggies
just like my great cousin Urban
That plum is two years old?
And how do you heat? And that's the alcohol?
But the real-estate market is out of control
and in any case: I have no money
The carrots look pretty good to me!
Are those carrots?
They've seeded themselves?
I'm way more tempted by Judith's offer
to go on a climate strike, as a self-experiment.
In Summer 2020, the City of Vienna is campaigning
"If we all chip in, the climate will win"
Oh come on!
Clearly, our politicians are bankrupt
they just reframe climate change as a private problem
Okay, it's a stupid slogan:
"Get off the gas, get onto your bike"
We're even invited to submit our own "good deeds"
Blockade, not building brigade, that's as good as it gets!
so I ask my photographer friend Florian to lend me a hand.
Wouldn't it be great
if we could force the City of Vienna
to officially recognize street blockades as a "good deed"
for the world's climate?
And laugh now! Or be confident!
I'm not really convinced by my activist posturing
I think yours is better!
but Judith is really impressed.
However, we still need to talk shop
before I can start saving the planet,
budget is 15.000€ for the director
90.000€ for production!
I keep cool
but actually I'm vibrating
I've never had so much money on my hands
climate activism isn't that expensive anyway!
and it's just for a little bit of climate activism.
Why?
All you need is your body and courage!
I'd really like to have you on board
That looks really huge!
The next weekend
Michi and I go hiking in the remote "Waldviertel" region.
We see a house for sale.
I'm on a hike with my husband
and I just saw your sign, for sale
The agent arrives within 20 minutes.
He'll be putting the house online in the next days, for 90.000 euros.
Bedroom, that's the old part...
Hold on, 90.000€
I tell myself
that's exactly what I could cover with the film budget
But there, that does look quite nice
Michi falls in love with this little old Granny-house
I can see myself in the shade of the apple trees
writing film scripts about the climate crisis
I'm already 100% in
you still want to think about it, or?
Karl-Heinz, the agent, senses we're interested
and gives us the weekend to make a decision.
So nice how the sun comes in here!
Michi is all excited
surely, she says, my parents would vouch for a loan!
I've already done the numbers
I just want to talk about it with you
I shouldn’t be the one hesitating
I should seize the opportunity and act!
Whenever I face a big decision
I pretend my life is a film script:
the main character has no money
but a unique opportunity
to purchase a cheap weekend house
and thereby resolve a conflict with his wife.
I want to call there now
is that alright with you?
But to go begging to his parents
is below his dignity.
At the same time,
an interesting TV-commission!
You are the filmmaker, do it your way!
The price of the house equals the filmbudget:
90.000 Euro each
that can't be a coincidence!
Suddenly, I have a childish thought:
how about solve all problems at once?
Couldn't I really
just buy the house with the film budget,
and then shoot a low-budget film
about a life without money?
As in:
the money is gone
but that's actually the plot?
The next morning,
I get a definate "go" from ORF TV.
I immediately get on the phone with the agent.
Yes, well my wife fell in love with it
For once, I don't want to hesitate
I want to act!
A week later,
we have a kick-off meeting in the TV production offices
where we present our strike projects.
We do want to see synergies,
but every project should stand for itself.
I just registered to get a hunting permit
because I feel that's more feasible
rather than slaughtering a cow
Rafael Haider wants to spend one year
eating self-made food
But if someone invites you for lunch
to their home
what then?
Well, that won't be possible
You're not going to go?
Or you're going to bring your own stuff?
I'll take something with me
a small packed lunch.
We're more and more dependent on all these likes
Catalina Molina will spend a year
living without the internet.
From now on, you'll only reach me by phone
or by mail
this is my adress
- You can choose! - Really?
- Wow, I had that one! - I also had that one!
Lisa Weber is going on a speaking strike.
I guess it doesn't make for great film material
a person who doesn't talk for a year.
I also need to be careful not to isolate myself completely.
I'm quite nervous
I want to explain how
I'll tell a story about climate activism
by challenging consumer society.
I'll have much better possibilities for getting into activist circles
if I'm the guy without money.
I mean, the best product is the one that you don't buy
in terms of CO2-emissions.
It's a totally coherent way
of taking this climate strike to the next level
Ani Gülgün-Mayr
our head of programming
is relieved to have the unpopular climate topic
out of the way
Spending no money is a subject that affects everyone
Everyone accepts that
working without a film crew
is "conceptually necessary”
Noone traces it back to the fact
that I'll be buying a weekend house
with the film budget
- Barter trade? - Yeah!
Of course the house
has a far longer life-span
than the film
my most important ally to pay out
the entire budget as a fee to myself
is Miguel, my tax advisor
You'll have 100% of your fee left over
and then you pay back the loan
Because interest rates
are much lower than the taxes?
We currently have a zero-interest period
I set up a production company, ARGE SCHWARZ
I'll also be doing cut and camera
I could also pay myself an acting fee
To make it look more professional,
I'll use my pseudonyms
You get synergy effects
call it shell companies
we're not the only ones doing this.
It always depends on the situation
If the camera work is too complicated
my friends Georg und Marie-Therese will help out
Now the screen is locked
Georg is currently going through
a period of soul-searching
for him, it's a point of honour
to work for free
on a film about a life without money.
So he get nicknamed “Generous George”.
Cameraboy George!
Michi thinks it's cynical
to want to live for a year without money
especially considering those who are really in need
You have your own pencil, right?
Nonetheless, she signs the contract.
She can't believe her good luck
- Who shall I give them to? - To Michaela!
Now she really own a house in the country.
I don't quite believe I'm really doing this:
I never owned anything
did I just spend the budget for a documentary film
about a money strike
on a property?
My director's fee
will pay the renovation
Perfect conditions for a year without money:
I don't have any left.
But how am I really going to manage without money?
Time to quit the studio
move the most important equipment
to my son's former bedroom.
Give away the rest on the internet.
If it's for free, people will take just about everything
even dustballs and wood shavings
I'd love to take it!
Update successful
I'll take care of my parents' house and their computer
they'll pay my share of the rent
Michi is so thankfull for the weekend house
that she'll pay the electricity and gas bills for a year.
Bizarrely, I also don't have have to pay my production assistant.
It's in the settings for login & access
Constanze wants to intern
so she can get a foot into the film industry.
I give her full access to my empty bank accounts
I'm dead serious:
for one year,
I don't want to have anything to with money.
I don't want earn it
touch it
or even think about it
The day before new year's eve:
my final big shopping trip
a confused, last-minute mix of luxury party goodies
and spaghetti
I stash away some emergency ration in the bookshelf
and I switch my mobile to a prepaid card
20 euros must be enough for one year
The last 500 euros are turned into art-prints
and dispatched to friends
proudly announcing my "financial sabbatical year"
they're also an upfront artistic payment for all the free drinks
I'm hoping to be invited to
Welcome, you're on TV!
You laugh, but you don't really know Pac Man, right?
on new-years eve
we have cheese fondue
I've spent my last cash on lottery tickets
as my nest egg
as an emergency exchange currency
I feel save with it
The last coins go to Rosa
I don’t need them anymore
I’ll save all of it
Untill the end of the year!
Just before midnight
we walk over to the Danube Canal
to watch the others' fireworks.
There was one!
A fitting image for the next year:
I'll make do
with whatever others leave behind.
3-2-1
And then it's 2021
January, Febuary, March, April, May...
My money strike has started.
Car!
January:
Dolphin
We spend the first days in happy hibernation.
What do you want?
Back in Vienna, things get serious
Carrots?
Or into the rubbish bins
To save food via a "foodsharing"-plattform
I first have to pass a tricky online quiz.
At 8 in the morning
we assemble at Vienna's Hannover Market
and pick through the waste left behind by the vegetable merchants
Wow, aubergines, awesome!
Whatever we can spare
gets deposited in public fridges
Do you want pizza sticks and breadrolls?
And there's more stuff to be found
in garbage rooms in my neighbourhood
- The stuff here is covered with coffee! - Well, I don't really mind.
- You don't mind? - No. I've often...
- Pastries covered with coffee?! - Some of it was actually really tasty.
Well, I don't know, they do actually look ok, these brown mushrooms
Abstract knowledge turns into tangible reality
You have shelves forever filled with fresh food
and behind the scenes, tonnes of perfectly fine produce ends up in bins
Alas, this also happens in organic supermarkets.
How are we doing with the mangos, Chris?
You want to have those?
Unlike those people who really depend on salvaged food
my freedom from money is my own choice.
I'm proud to be picking through junk
and I sense my moral compass shifting:
eating low-budget industrial meat
and long-distance strawberries from Brazil now feels heroic
Do you want saved food from the trash?
A money strike?
In practise, that means:
I do all my trips by bike.
My social insurance remains in place
but I don't go to the doctor.
I use no medication
except the free covid-vaccine
Washing liquid can be made
from soap and old schnaps
You can read new books
in the library
Due to the pandemic,
socialising takes place at my home
The dinner guests bring along beer and pretzel sticks
Yes, thanks so much for the kind invitation
I'm really honored...
In exchange for an online lecture
I get olive oil
as birthday presents
I go for Origami-flowers
and Michi gets a sound collage entitled:
"What your friends like about you!"
You’re such a special person!
You’re so talented
Actually, honest compliments should never cost anything
...youthful, on the other hand, you're very wise!
I like you a lot!
- Everthing’s ok? - Yes.
There's also something else I can exchange for food:
my own blood.
After donating, you can have a little meal
or a takeaway snack
How much can I take?
I explain that I absolutely need to film both.
February:
Which side, left or right?
Without the magic wand of money to fix things
my life has gotten rather impractial.
Meanwhile, Michi is earning sensational hourly wages as a nurse
taking nasal swabs
She's clearly more relaxed these days.
- Shall we meet outside? - Yeah.
As for Rosa,
my strike has definitely increased her fascination with money.
She's probably the next one I want
...and a horsewoman costs 20€, so you'll be at 28€
When we tell the owner of a toy store about my experiment,
he gives Rosa a second horse for free
perhaps hoping to win a future customer
Doing something for the young consumers!
That's really very nice of you!
Well, that's for you to say
I fear that you might buy some more horses
- My year without money? - Exactly, I'm on money strike since January!
- Like zero? - Like zero!
In these first weeks
I'm most impressed by "Robin Foods", a group of food savers.
David and his associates
are rescuing surplus food on a larger scale
and redistributing it in public space
- I haven't checked, when's the sell-by date? - Well, a week ago.
Transportation by bicycle is a must
their weekly cargo-rides on some of Vienna's busiest roads
are a way of projecting self-confidence to the outside
The same supermarket
that boasts of donating a food aid package
to charity every week
Yeah, fruit yoghurt!
actually throws away huge ammounts of food every evening
- Orange-Mango-Carrot. - Super!
The true extent of the wastage
is not meant to be seen.
This also happens often, one breaks in the the box
- ...and all are thrown away - Exactly
Do we need to worry about this?
The sirens?
Yes! Let's make a move, or?
Left-overs for environmental education
To spread the word about Robin Foods and their work
I produce a litte video
Joe wants supermarkets to use a minus 100% sticker
If they give away everything half an hour before the expiry date
they'd have no garbage and it all goes to the people
I don't want to be part of a system
that creates things anew every time
David tells about all the things
he's already found in the supermarket trash
He provides me with video evidence.
...in a mixed garbage bin. Full of those lemonades.
We're talking about that road bump on Grinzinger Allee
where the accident happened
But I also film David as he plans protests
against the car-centric traffic policies in his district Döbling
Now I talk a bit more about Döbling.
What's even worse than climate collapse?
In Döbling:
a loss of precious car parking space!
That's a massiv traffic obstacle.
David's preferred protest strategy:
bicycle demonstrations!
I immediately join him
and make a fool of myself
standing beside bicycle paths with my big sign and handwritten flyers
That's the name of the local council leader!
At the meeting point, I hand out placards with juicy slogans.
Or "Let's make Döbling a cycling district".
The turn-out isn't exactly overwhelming.
We remain calm
even when aggression comes from other players
We stop at a crossing
where, just recently, a mother and her two children
were hit by a car
I wish I had the moral courage
to reach for the megaphone
but I'm too shy
and just shout our slogan
More cycle paths for Döbling!
In spite of the low turnout
David is unfazed
and organises two new cycle protest rides every month
In these days
he becomes my activist role model:
Don't hesitate
just do it.
I start my own first project of the year:
a food sharing shelf in our staircase
March:
In my search for self-sufficiency
I hit upon subsistence farming
Using old junk from the neighbourhood
we build a chicken pen
Michi plans to save some chickens from a factory farm
Or let's make a new compost on that side
and next year we can get good soil from here
A kids' brigade helps us
dig a vegetable bed
But wouldn't it be more exciting for my film
if I ventured into urban agriculture?
In my search for free land
I hit upon traffic roundabouts
Why not grow potatoes right here?
and show how valuable land gets sacrificed
for the free flow of traffic?
You could probably make electricity
If I know that the district is ok with it and supporting us
I make some unsuccessful phone calls
to the local council offices
Back to bureacracy, it's been a while!
After I mention my cooperation with national TV
a council representative agrees to see me after all
Well, I'm always up for talking about things.
Günther Cermak finds my vision quite charming
but hardly feasible
Roundabouts are governed by multiple, overlapping authorities
MA46, the landowner...
Cermak runs through practically all the city departments
I drift off
this is getting way too complicated
Until you actually have the permit in your hands
you can't really begin
As we say goodbye
I have a flash of inspiration:
wouldn't it be easier to sell this as an art project?
Definately....
Cermak confirms this.
I'd give it better chances as an art project in public space, absolutely!
For real?
Ok.
My perfect partners for artistic potatoe-growing
on a traffic roundabout?
Steffi for design
Lilli as head gardener
plus, she also owns a tractor
Doing this by hand would be kind of hard-core, or?
Our project title:
Vienna Potatoe-go-Round
We apply for art funding
In our budget spreadsheet, next to my name
is simply one word: MONEY STRIKE.
The feeling is, literally, priceless.
....but also low entry-barriers
a participative neighbourhood project
There are also parts of yourself
that are doubtful, or self-critical...
George, my camera guy
is currently way more into his self-development
than into making films
With his help
I come to realise
how fascinated I've always been with money.
In my very own wallet
I've been carrying photos of my children
printed onto foreign banknotes
My pre-diploma project at art university
was a fictional EU-agency
selling advertisement space on Euro notes
In performances,
I often made fun of the art market
but my focus was nonetheless:
money
The only thing I can tell you...
George's probing questions
make me realise
that my allergic dry skin
is doing much, much better these days
Into this bodily experience...
Studying my diaries in the evening
I detect a clear corelation
between periods of financial insecurity
and allergic episodes
Could liberation from the logic of money
finally lead me to
the liberation of my body?
- You can also do those tomorrow! - Yes!
Then do one more German excercise now.
Rosa's school has switched back to distance learning
...maths homework!
so I take her on a self-study excursion
in "political education"
For decades,
the environmental movement has been campaigning
again a tunnel under the "Lobau" National Park
This summer, the City of Vienna
wants to begin works on a highway link
The project is euphemistically branded as "Town Road"
Zwentenburg...
I create a video
showing how today's protests in the Lobau Forest
are directly linked
to some of the finest moments in Austrian environmentalism
So, instead of money
I'm now fishing for Likes.
But I only get 7
in spite of using the all-time magic formula
"nature plus children".
....ruin the ground with potatoes?
or would that be too complicated?
April
we get permission for our potatoe art project
but only on sundays,
when traffic levels are low.
We propose a sign
describing our lifestyle as a "world war"
but the authorities reject this
as it might irritate some drivers
Mmh, I see...
But what if we actually work with this restriction?
what counts most for me
is that we can just do the project there
the fact that automobile traffic doesn't want to be reminded
of its own, disastrous impact?
I suggest that during weekdays,
we change our sign from "world war"
to "world market"
which also goes well with the business park next door
One week later, in our next negotiation
the authorities give us permission.
The sign would be changed back
to "we are in a World War"
At our next meeting,
Judith seems more earnest than usual:
nothing wrong with "cute" little feelgood-projects
like urban gardening, bicycle demonstrations
and food sharing in my staircase
But wasn't my money strike meant to lead me
towards more hard-core climate activism?
It's definately on my agenda...
something with cars in the the city!
Against.
Maybe go back to the starting point of the project!
After the lockdowns are over,
I start going to exhibition openings again
where I always find friends
willing to invite me for a beer.
Or, you're a greenie, just don't buy it?
Other people are paying for me.
But it's not so easy to persuade them.
So maybe that's the work.
Leonie and Thomas try asking trick questions,
to see if I'm somehow cheating
my way out of my money strike
Yes, but then what are the rules?
- If someone wants to go with me on a trip to Lower Austria
I say:
sure, but you've got to pay.
But is that totally ok with you, if people pay for you?
Yes, but it's also ok with me not to do the trip
And when I start explaining,
why things are like this,
then it's actually always funny.
They ridicule me
for having my parents pay the rent
Leonie calls me a "compromise clown"
It's more about showing
that so many ressources are readily available
I'm not saying that everyone could live like this.
Yes, because someone else is paying.
I like to say:
it's given to some to take.
I'm kind of asking myself
how authentic things are if you process them in a film.
Later, Thomas says it quite directly:
I'm basically just performing my idealism
for the camera.
...somehow semi-staged
I'm in the mood to keep provoking him
but I'm hoping for another beer
I announce a big anti-car campaign
We're building a car out of cardboard!
these are good markers
Couldn't we expose the privileges given to automobile traffic
by claiming them for ourselves?
Which is kind of a bit annonying,
because bikes make no noise
and now we're making extra noise!
In the park, together with some kids
I build a decoy-car with a soundbox
How do we actually call this?
Any suggestions for a name?
They immediately come up
with a name for our creation:
a "Lauto", a loud automobile.
We hit the streets
Our good mood evaporates on the spot.
bashfully, we circle around the block a few times
Then, I get into an argument with a neighbour
who usually greets me very nicely
it all just feels childish
I've had enough.
If you don't want any noisy cars
then you shouldn't be living in the city!
It’s just a stupid idea
To come up with more constructive ideas for protests
I visit a street campaign
organised by my sister Hanna
and the association "Geht.Doch.Wien"
meaning "Vienna, you can walk"
campaigning for more pedestrian space in the city
Hanna is enraged by the fact
that residents can get parking spaces
for just 10 euros a month!
There once was a funny intervention, with a flatbed truck
Couldn't I make a statement
by converting an old truck into a vegetable bed
a garden for everyone!
and then put a compost toilet on top
to protest against all this unfair . . . shit?
And as fertiliser!
That certainly hasn't been done before!
Or: you take a car, a convertible
and fill it up with soil
Hey, that would be amazing!
With stuff for everyone, like herbs or so.
So I hit social media
and start looking for a convertible
for climate activism
My neighbour Camilla reaches out to me
And that belongs to your aunt?
It belongs to her
it's not in great shape anymore
but I guess for your project...
Next weekend, I visit Christa
who reminisces about glamorous road-trips
But now the convertible has just become a burden
She thinks my project is visionary
and is happy to just give it to me
In exchange
I insist on some symbolic garden labour
We raise a toast to myself
proud owner of a convertible
but without a driving licence
how daring!
I also drink
to summon my courage for the return trip
without a ticket
hiding on the toilet again
My neighbour Robert helps me register the car
Hanna's association will pay the monthly fees
What's this?
That's the cooler.
A few days later
Generous George joins me
and we go to pick it up
In the boot
I discover an obscure 1990ies-tape:
Do you think the tape deck still works?
the "Kopyleft Liberation Front"
a free soundtrack for my year without money
perfect open-source music for me and my film
The band doesn't seem to exist online
Three...
Two
One
Zero!
Many of my fellow campaigners
also don't want to be paid
For example Stoffi, my brother-in-law
who will build the supporting structure
for our vegetable bed
How about 20 cm?
You don't need it for the herbs.
Whenever I take along my camera
and talk about my self-experiment
everyone feels flattered
and consents to being filmed
...write your name and adress here
Nobody seems to consider
that I actually had a budget for filming permits
and allowences
Their idealism
is paying for my weekend house
I want you to go up here...
Like in the circus
To explain the house to my friends
I expertly deliver a story
about Michi's rich aunt Rudi
who appeared rather unexpectedly
and died shortly thereafter
...have to sell something maybe
It's very cute
it's definately a special house
it has a certain charm.
They'll go to the people who live here!
No, they'll go to the people who do the work!
The people who live here could also work here!
It's easier if you take it like this
And just let it drop
Like this, right?
May:
Our sundays are now spent
on the traffic roundabout
But instead of using Lilli's tractor
the work has to be done by hand
I'll be more than happy
if we get the water here
and this one hut
David and Anna deliver four water tanks
with their cargo bikes
isn't that proof enough
that mobility without cars is workable?
All you can drink, David. Help yourself!
World War mutates into World Market
As long as the Euros keep rolling
the flow of traffic must not be disturbed
In my opening speech
I don't mention my money strike
I'd rather be seen as a courageous climate activist
than a guy scrambling for free potatoes
...so he was quickly let in with his big box
to the city councilor Svihalek...
Take a long swing!
David introduces me to climate campaigners
of “Extinction Rebellion”
I film their so-called "week of rebellion"
I want to give a voice
to the people behind the banners
Okay, looking at you!
Go down a bit, so we see you too
If the animals die out
the insects
if the food chains collapse
then eventually it will be our turn, too
We've seen that it's possible
that we can take crises seriously
It gets more intense every year!
We have not much time left
And all we get to hear from politicians
and corporations
and from industry
is greenwashing, empty promises
And I can't
just sit on my hands and watch it happen
When the time comes
to look myself into the mirror
I want to be able to say:
“We did something, back then”
It was clear, the facts were on the table
But in the media
the climate crisis is completely eclipsed
by the pandemic
which makes me really angry
And my videos are making hardly any difference
Couldn't I go one step further
and pit myself against fossil-fuel capitalism
with my very own body?
But spelling out my motives on a placard
turns out to be surprisingly difficult
Sincere feelings appear all too naive
but I can't well block a road ironically
I'm happy that I'm finally...
sitting on the side in front of the camera
We gather in Vienna's central park
to discuss the split of roles:
I will let myself be arrested
...better would be 4 and 4
Then we're off!
The cars oppose us
with a heavy chorus of honking
one lady
drives right through a banner
paralysing the traffic
isn't an end in itself
but the only way
publicly pressure politicians
into finally implementing their own climate goals
The police seals off the street within 15 minutes
The officer in command curtly suggests
we'd better get up
or else risk catching a cold on the wet ground
I thought he was talking about his colt....
The demonstration is dissolved
but Manfred, Werner and I still stay seated
We should get a fine
The police should actually haul us
in to check our identities
but mercifully
they let us run
The officers make us promise
that we won't go right back
to blocking the next road
these contacts with the cars
they didn't stress me at all
because I didn't feel them to be humans
they're just cars, honking
Keeping up such a project for an entire year
is stressfull enough as it is
So we'd also have the possibility for you
to see a therapist
After five months of money strike
time for a first recap at the ORF television offices
And these snails live at my place
they reproduce like crazy
in the bathroom
in the bathtub
Rafael presents footage of his snail farm
He's already built a loyal following on YouTube
presenting foundational research
on all things edible
It's like an oyster
that tastes of chicken
That you meet in real life
that you really share photos with each other
Catalina's internet strike has evolved
evolved into a weekly slideshow-night in a bar
we project it
like on a slide night
a sort of substitute for social media
and the start of a story about people
who from the very start committed themselves
to living without the internet
I'm closer to myself
it really makes me feel much better
I'm not missing anything
Lisa has completed a course for sign language
and communicates via musical instruments
and a small soundbox
That's why I stopped using it very soon
and stuck with the “Computer Lisa”
Was is it a long casting-process
to know which voice will speak for you?
And the pandemic?
Is that having an additional effect now?
Pleasant!
Well, that's nice.
I present my experiences as a food saver
and the bureacratic world war on the traffic roundabout
Ani suggests that
my life without money
seems to be going just a bit too well
To be honest
that's just a bit too picture-perfect
There were a number of moments
were it was really problematic
not to have money
But all in all
I just got everything organised
pretty well beforehand
You're getting a director's fee
for your money strike
Don't people keep asking you
about how that goes together?
Mmh...
Well, so far
that hasn't really been an issue
It kind of worked like:
he's the activist
and that's why we're all helping out as well
it was more like:
it works without money for everyone
Lisa is right, of course
I should just feed my director's fee
to the animals!
Or, even better:
a ritual money-burning ceremony
as an anti-capitalist climax for my film
You're so silly...
it's of no use to you anyway
But...
I've put all the money into the weekend house now
so I'd have to fake the burning somehow
In January
Rosa and I found an envelope for the christmas carollers on the street
The note burns well
I don't feel anything
I have go
at looking for counterfeit money in the dark net
A Czech supplier has the best ratings
I still own one-tenth of a bitcoin
which I could transfer
via an old-school computer
and open wifis
as a safe address:
an appartment in Prague
It's end of May
officially we're invited
to the wedding of Michi's cousin
but while we act
as an innocent tourist family
we're actually waiting
for mail delivery
of 15,000 Euros
in small notes
On the last night
the doorbell rings
for three Pizzas
which I never ordered
Michi, did we order Pizza?
In the middle box:
the Europizza
- Did you know that he'd be coming now? - I actually thought it's coming by mail.
You're making fun of me now, right?
Because that looks damn real!
We're scared...
but we cover it up by inventing names
for this "delivery service"
Okay, I start:
Cash al forno
We feel like serious criminals,
although legally speaking
burning counterfeit money is no crime
Rather a good deed!
It's what the police
would do as well
You mean like this?
Little Bello is in charge
of the money transport
we board the train with a massive hang-over
when we finally cross the border
we are extremely relieved
June:
I invite selected friends
to my ceremonial money-burn
on the banks of the Danube, near Kritzendorf
...support the success of the movie
I got some last-minute reassurances from my tax advisor
yes, a burnt director's fee is indeed tax deductible
...an investment into the film
and therefore tax deductible
well, then we can make those
- I don’t like you - Why?
My nephews are enlisted as helpers
Why are you doing this?
The kids are extremely anxious about my plan
Money is valuable!
and display some serious capitalist concern
- It's only paper! - That's just stupid.
I collect all phones
today something radical is going to happen
Thomas, sorry.
I feel like a teacher
Who else wants to make a spit?
Rafael suggest
we could also smoke the banknotes
I need you as witnesses
that this is really happening!
Money is unnecessary!
- Bravo! - Money is unnecessary!
And then: a pathetic speech
Our grandchildren will stand on Europe’s border
the climate crises calls for radical anti-consumerism.
Don't light the the good money on fire!
Paradoxically
the best way of reducing money's CO2 emissions
is simply to burn it
That money is stopping us
from saving this planet!
I love how worried
my poor friends look
and how admiring the rich
The twenty euro bills burn better
I've also invited Thomas
eager to prove to him
that my money strike isn't just a fun little project
...staging itself as a model green city
and then building highways in the suburbs
My nephews are
constantly trying to steal money
which kind of stresses me out
The Czech counterfeits
must be completely burned
else I'm really in for some trouble
Nobody suspects the true extent
of my criminal energy
organising fake money
to fuck over everyone
Generous George
gives me a conspirative wink
takes 50 Euros
out of his own wallet
I can't tell him the truth either
And then...
I get competely drunk
which makes my show
even more believable
I mean, for real:
did I just blow a small car
into thin air?
Exactly...
if you'd get out
of the Vienna Bubble a bit...
A few days later
Judith shares a deep insight with me:
all "pioneers of money-free living"
went on a big journey
at some point
It'd actually also be exciting
if you travelled somewhere
Oh, this guy takes a sailing boat
to cross the Atlantic!
How should I do this?
You don't have to sail
but what about the Danube?
Of course
I've already been thinking about
how to join my family
on their vacation in Carinthia
I obviously can't
do climate road blocks
and then privately travel by car
...this is not something where you're saying
it has to be in the film
Look, I also just want it to be good
Why not have another glass of wine
and then you tell me the truth?
So, I'll go by foot
You can just try it
Worst case, you get scared
and have to drive back to Vienna
Fast-forward through the rest of June:
Me documenting the
"First Vienna Traffic Light Race"
which highlights some impossibly short
green lights at pedestrian crossings
After a long search
for a hairdresser
who's willing to exchange his services
I finally find Billan
and babysit his daughter
Launching an improvised
money-free summer cinema
with Constanze and David
We give ourselves a glamorous name
to persuade up-and-coming filmmakers
to share their newest works
When it rains
we shelter beneath the U-Bahn-arcades
A last house maintenance service for my parents
I'm always happy
when I can give something back
for the rent they're paying
Should I put all that into my rucksack?
And see how it feels?
July
Feels better.
Michi buys me a chocolate bars
and takes me out for ice-cream
It's for real now, or?
She clings firm to her belief
that I'll still change my mind
Take care of yourself!
assures me that she'll be ready to rescue me at any time
Don't you dare loose your phone
And then I'm off
my life boiled down
to three clear tasks:
cover the distance
find food
organise shelter
for example at the guest flat
of some friends' communal living project
For the second night
I havn't organised anything
I roam the suburbs in Laaben
in the Vienna Woods
In my imagination
it had been so easy
to ask for dinner left-overs
and a place to sleep
now, I feel like a crook
In the “Schöpfl" mountain lodge
the landlady lets me know
that going on a money strike is idiotic
her piece of free cake
is a humilation
Sure, I get it
I can't expect everyone
to believe in my project
Or did I just sell it badly?
For the hike!
Wonderful!
The lady in the bakery in Rohrbach
is happy that someone still wants to
eat yesterday's baguette
And I have one advantage over real vagrants:
my camera
The hotel "Steinschaler Hof" near the Pielach river
takes me in for a night
in exchange for a promise
to include their
marvellous wild herb garden
in my film
here we go:
7 seconds silence
between all the talking
an authentic advert
for the "Steinschaler Hof" Hotel
I can't promise that yet
it would just be a scene in my film
Using the same trick
I spend two nights
with Ursula, Hans and Thomas
in a minimalistic wooden box
how long does Petra last in the freezer?
Whenever food supplies run low
Rafael is my emergency call number
when in need
the devil eats snails
Could I charge my phone here?
Soon enough
I learn how things work in restaurants:
first, just ask to charge your phone
If that leads to a conversation
coffee and cake will follow
sometimes even dinner
The fastest route is along the main roads
where cars shoot by, like projectiles
Noise
pollution
dead animals everywhere
My contempt for cars
grows into pure hate
My phone lasts well!
And then my parents drive to Carinthia
planning their journey
so that they can invite me for a lunch
and give me a ride
Inside the car: a lovely silence
a gentle glide through nature
accompanied by Schubert's Piano concertos
The driver isn't a violent barbarian
he's just...
my father
In the match Austria versus Italy...
Farewell, Christoph!
Thanks for the lunch!
I hereby call this mismatch
between inside and outside perspectives
the "Automobile Paradox"
And I still have some kilometers ahead of me
to think about it
My gratitude
for bed and dinner
is boundless
Money
keeps us coldly at a distance
I think to myself
as I pet Lady, the alsatian
only without money
do we become human
Not if you're a refugee from Afghanistan
retorts a social-media editor
back at the ORF
where, two weeks later
I present my footage
You don't have to show every goodbye...
Judith thinks I could start shortening things a bit
I really like the thing with the snails!
But in my view
the days in Admont Abbey
were especially significant
Now I am in Admont Abbey!
Show it to us, she says
Cultural monuments in the Austrian Countryside
are perfect for television
Sorry...
Aren't the frugal Benedictine monks
who live without any possesions
obliged to host me?
...Christoph Schwarz speaking
the pennyless pilgrim
And indeed:
I'm allowed to sleep in the monk's closed quarters
and recieve generous nourishment
from the abbey kitchen
The long hike is starting to drain my forces
I have incredible back pain
Father Thomas treats me
to a herbal gel from the abbey's pharmacy
...Father Thomas will take care of that
It's on his account
I hike up into the Tauern mountains
my back still hurting
You're my saviour!
My guardian angel appears:
Generous George!
We speed up the toll road
into pristine nature
where I strike a thoughtful pose
in front of his camera
couldn't we see
the alarming temperature increases in the Alps
as a positive opportunity?
Coffee plantations?
Normally, I have to do it in secret
or I don't dare
could I take a packed lunch
for my hike?
Silva from the hotel packs me a free lunch
Yes?
Farewell to George
who paid for everything
today I'll be sleeping in the moutains
I don't drink beer
I hike up towards the summit
A true environmentalist
shouldn't shy away from outdoor sleeping
I find a slanting
rocky platform
Cheers!
Darkness falls
I'm enveloped by a frightful silence
pressing me against the starry canopy
of an unbearably vast universe
Impossible to sleep here
At half-past-four in the morning
an assault of aggressive mountain wasps
forces me to flee
back to the valley
I've had enough of nature
I hitch a ride
for the first time in my life
and within a few hours
I reach Carinthia
Hi, it's me, Christoph
I crash at Jürgen's self-sufficient farm
I met him at a street blockade
20 kilometers before reaching my goal
I give up
a good spot for you to get me!
Michi rescues me
You smell a bit not-so-great
Ah, yes, Extinction Rebellion
that's also good
There's going to be more action then?
Judith is disappointed
that I didn't take to the streets again with Jürgen
while the social media lady
is impatient to know
if I still have any plans with the convertible
Yes, perhaps if it's combined with a prize contest?
August:
the convertible
After witnessing my money burn
Thomas is completely convinced
of my activist credentials
He helps me with the finishing touches
We could plant it there
Camilla and I have yet to finish
planting the herbs
and already there's a snapshot in the newspaper
Yes, it's already in the...
amazing how quickly that happens
Our message is simple:
one hand to the side...
the easiest path to planting herbs in the city
is, absurdly:
a convertible
Let it dangle, the watering can
For an unbelievably cheap 10€ a month
you can privatise 10 square meters
of public road
Why does that not apply
to raised vegetable beds?
The public, however
interprets a soil-filled convertible
as an act of revenge:
a stag night?
A marriage crisis?
The dominance of cars in our cities
seems completely natural
why would anyone protest
against Natural Law?
I got it as a gift.
Want some sparkling wine?
The intervention strikes a chord
Can't you do that everywhere?
At our opening party
complete strangers stop for drinks
My video goes viral
That’s perfect!
That’s a great pose!
Vienna will be wow!
Exactly!
Heading into the weekend
I'm greeted by own smile
on the title-page of a free newspaper
Let's hope my new-found celebrity
will earn me a free pass if I'm caught without a ticket
Ha, I have another one!
At the roundabout:
That’s disgusting!
a potatoe beetle attack
in the midst of a concrete desert
What are we going to do with it?
Throw it away!
But where?
Just because we say:
the first highway is congested
let's build a second
even bigger highway
and screw the forest
And then our resistance
against the planned new highways
gets more and more intense
The City of Vienna
wants to push this through
planned for 40-60.000 cars
right through residential areas
at a time
we're in the midst of a climate crisis
We block the access roads
to the freshly fenced-off construction sites
Our activism isn't appreciated by everyone
This is a violation of freedom
this is a public road
if you don't leave
then I'll run you over
I don't care!
You're on video!
For these 460-600 million
you can get a tenfold
increase of tram tracks built
Plans are made
at a big networking meeting in the Lobau forest
Then, the action quickly unfolds:
a protest camp is set up
in the 22nd district in Hirschstetten
a few days later
two construction sites are completely blocked
I shoot a video in support of the mobilisation effort
"How to Occupy a Digger"
More movement!
Who wants to stop new highways
flocks to the 22nd district in Hirschstetten
3... 4...
Apocalypse!
Lobau!
Must remain!
Lobau?
Must remain!
Soon, there are rumors
of a potential eviction
The more people
spend the night at the construction sites today
the better
I’ll keep filming here...
And if it gets dark, I'll come over
...comfortable jogging pants for sleeping
But nothing happens
no police
So, the next morning we carry right on
and occupy a third construction site
If I develop public transport
more people will use public transport
if I invest in roads
more people will drive by car
Many people who live here
are against the project
but they've given up
or they think nothing can be done
We want to show that something can be done here!
September
The arts scene also starts
taking an interest in activism
a German curator
invites me to a talkshow
in an urban development area
near the occupied construction sites
I bring along some harmless ballons
and explain to Tim
that the night before, we inflated them
by tapping air from SUV tires
Tim senses my fake
and asks me to redo the ballons
in front of his camera
There's no SUV to be found
so I hijack a family van
Once the camera is gone
I diligently pump the tires back up again
For most people
occupying construction sites
and deflating tires
is taking it way too far
a convertible converted into a herbal bed
earns you sympathetic supporters all around
A few days later, however...
the authorities threaten to tow away our car
They claim it's not really a functioning car
We'd definitely drive it to a different road
So we hunt for a new parking spot
The authorities aren't satisfied
a car must be ready
to drive at all times
You immediately saw
how public space unfolds such power
once we use it for things other
than just parking out cars
If it's being given away so cheaply
then all citizens should
be allowed to use this space
to have a vegetable garden for €10 a month
or table-football
a coffee-table
a video-editing desk.
The media quickly latch onto
this cat-and-mouse game between
the authorities and our convertible herbal-garden
but it kind of distracts from our core message:
if you invest 3 billion euros
into building highways
More space for people
less space for cars
So, we remove the soil from the driver's seat
and fit it with a big pot of herbs
At first glance
the authorities have won this game
but:
we suddenly gain mobility
On the way to a street fair
Flo parks in front of his favourite bar
to impress his friends
Could we have mojitos?
Our car-grown mint
is used to mix a Mojito
which is fine with me
as long as I don't have to pay
I can’t drink all...
I have to go by bike
You also have 0.5 per mille, right?
Hold it straight, please!
- Like this? - Yes, sure, straight!
Hello!
Would you like to have a drink with us?
Without the dog, afterwards?
What happened to your idea...
of putting people in the center?
If you build this stupid city highway!
The next wave of Extinction Rebellion protests
is also directed against the city highway:
Straighten the banner once more!
Anna and Werner smuggle themselves
into the headquarters of the Social Democratic Party
Please, no more concrete-pouring politics!
Once again, Conny performs her anti-highway anthem
...we must enter the Lobau forest!
Cars make noise!
We make music!
Make public transport free
and party on the streets!
My convertible is summoned to a big street blockade
as a symbol of resistance!
I think chaining myself to the convertible
is too much for me
But...
is it worth sacrificing
our good understanding with the authorities?
You know, I think
it stands out even more
if you hold it upside-down!
A planning meeting at the occupied construction site
phones off and out, actually
my camera isn't exactly welcome
That's the emergency access-corridor
The plan is to block a bridge
over the Danube Canal
with cable drums
and park the convertible smack in the middle
I'd need a buddy who will drive it away
before it gets towed off
Two days later
is the big day
and I've not been as nervous
as this all year
I repeat my mantra:
"Everything is insignificant
in the worst case it's a good story
and in the end I'll play piano
And then you drive in there
and park yourself in the middle
With Florian, I wait for the starting signal
my fingers tremble
I'm trembling!
Yes, you're totally trembling!
Aren't the police
going to tow away
our peaceful herbs-on-wheels on the spot
if we turn it into a barricade?
Right on the medial strip!
But once the blockade is in place
I'm flooded with euphoria
the police seems to have no intention
of removing us
Normally the slogan is:
"Vienna, you're a parking lot"
but today it'll be:
"Stop the destruction, create the transformation"
David is also here
he mentions money problems
he doesn't know
how to pay the rent
for the club house
he's not amused by my joking
suggestion to go on a rent strike
Exactly, there'll be some donations
also at the camp
We have some dumpster food
what more could you want?
some dumpster energy drinks
The last day of late summer:
a big street party
owered by the climate justice movement
Let's briefly discuss the dramaturgy
let's see which plot lines
October:
Ani wants us to decide
which plot lines we are going to focus on
I'm more and more into
the whole subject of foraging
you just bread it like a schnitzel
Rafael is super-successful
with his survival cooking courses
he breads and fries tree bark
and old leather shoes
it just tastes of breadcrumbs
International
Intercultural
Please stop talking!
Lisa presents footage
from her speechless everyday life
Watching her boyfriend Severin
call a monastery in Thailand
to book her into a silent-retreat
is seriously funny
W-E-B-E-R-L-I-S-A
It means "Lobau Forest will Stay"
I earn praise for having evolved
from a charming beggar
into a serious climate activist
This is super exciting!
definitely follow it!
But what exactly
does my money-free life
boil down to
other than the fact
that you need to be rich
to afford poverty
...your family and children
I don't need it
it gives me time
energy
My colleagues appear
to be on top of their game
I would absolutely recommend it to everyone...
outside, Catalina confesses
that she's having major arguments
with her protagonists
They find it completely contradictory
since parts of it are going to end up
up on the internet again
ORF is putting them online
Her plan B
is to switch to working with friends
who have followed
and also gone on internet-strike
I have two friends
they are open for it
Just between us:
they’re actors
I haven't hired them
but they're actually actors
so they have no problem
with having a camera
pointed at them all the time
I often dream
of being allowed to talk again
but no longer being able to
I'm seriously scared
that some of my muscles are withering
And Lisa, since a few weeks
has been battling with nightmares
And what if you just sing
for yourself a bit, at night?
by now I'm also increasingly scared
of hearing my own voice again
Oh no...
Next Sunday
we gather on the traffic roundabout
for a harvest festival
The children find the car park
more exciting than the potato field!
Ok somebody else?
Hanna, would you like to bet?
I thing 89kg!
You're all so optimistic!
Christoph, tell me!
I said 40kg!
It's great that so many people
trust a roundabout
to be able to grow something here
That we have managed to
turn this non-place
a meeting place
a place where you feel comfortable
I personally
liked this the most
Steffi reads out the results
of pollutant testing
our potatoes are safe to eat
...below the threshold
Let’s get going!
get to the tool
If it helps
I can count the rhythm
Stab
lift
pull
While the others start digging
I can't help wondering
about the essence of my money-free year
I was able to master all challenges
thanks to the help of other people
Is this the deeper message
that everyone wants to hear from me:
Potatoe bugs!
we'll only survive
the coming crises together?
We've just been thinking
what to do with the water tanks
they might be useful for a street blockade
but the police
would simply run them out
On this day
we harvest 90 kg of potatoes
Proudly, I heave my share
6 kilo!
That's how I get through the year!
It was really nice today!
Yes, really good.
November:
the protests against the new city highway
come to a head
Everyone does
what they do best:
Lud-will-ig
willfully wants to
pave over Hirschstetten
Joe has composed a protest anthem
dedicated to Vienna's Mayor
Lud-will-ig
willfully wants to
undermine Lobau forest
pull the heavy goods traffic
During a bike protest ride
I meet the actor Robert Stadlober
He declares, in complete earnest
that he'd love to play the role
of a highway interchange
How does he actually feel?
We zoom in really far
and you explain little by little
Who am I?
like a
knot of pretzels made of concrete
I lie there
on my walls...
sprayers spray
Together, we develop a series of animations
illustrating how
the most beautiful recreational areas
of Vienna
are being sacrificed for motorised freedom
What would the Danube Canal be without me?
A generic recreational area
without character!
Who am I?
Interchange Nussdorf
But on the weekends
I retreat to the countryside
Michi pays my train tickets
I do my best to look like a gardener
press home-made apple juice
to reconcile climate campaigning
with second home ownership
We're about to park away
our convertible for the winter
but then there's an invitation
to demonstrate in front of the Social Democratic Party headquarters
I'm supposed to give a speech!
Now is the time
to get over my fears and anxieties
Wanna say somthing?
I rehearse with Hanna
she's very encouraging
“You’ll get there!”
Private transportation
which your party...
I feel we should call him
"climate change adaptation councilman"
A real climate councilman
should be a leader in the fight
for mobility transition
And take a stand against
the councilwoman for mobility
when she talks about
"upholding the rights of motorists"
Things I've always wanted to do
but never dared:
to give a flaming speech
at a demonstration
Check.
...and cementing in a mobility concept
for decades to come
Alright, the convertible season is over!
A few days later
the Green Party's Minister of Transportion declares
The Lobau Highway
and the tunnel going
directly through the nature reservation
will not be built!
Long live Leonore!
Are you happy? Great day, right?
We celebrate
this first big victory
at the christmas market
eerily empty, thanks to Corona
in front of the town hall
all that remains to be done
is to convince the Mayor of Vienna
that a cancelled highway means
we also don't need to build
the highway connection roads
People, we need to get onto the barricades
because it works!
Lobau, Lobau, Lobau?
Will stay, stay, stay!
And hopefully for ever!
Thanks to all of you for coming!
Let's get out of our cars
let's get into the Lobau forest...
At this point
I'm thinking:
what a success-story
this could be the climax of my film
everything else is just
banal coping with everyday life
But then
I get another opportunity
to burn money:
December
As a participant in the
"Ecocide" group exhibition
I present a simple method
for installing a sandpit
in front of your door:
just repurpose a convertible
...the things you have to do
to give this space back to kids
They're also rescued
but not from the garbage...
David hosts a garbage-bin buffet
Mmh, a cherry-chocolate-cake
...keep your minimum distance
I bought CO2-Certificates
for 10 euros
to compensate
As an opening performance
I literally carbonise my artist's fee
we'd actually like to
make sure we
don't hit any climate tipping points
but first of all
we need to ensure
that the economy recovers
after Corona
Then, perhaps...
I'm not too good with handling fossil fuels
you always carry that with you
in case there's some money that needs burning
but happily Osvaldo, the in-house technician
always has an extra bunsen-burner with him
Standing in the first row
and taking pictures is David
But after the performance
he's gone
And I get a text message:
"Bro, that was real money.
You could have donated it"
He tells me he no longer
wants to appear in my film
...come back again
and we'll talk about it
I thought, you knew about it
But...
you signed a contract
I can't just let you get out now...
I can't do that, or?
Nooooo...
Beautiful!
Looking at it now
this performance
was probably the tipping point
Bravo!
If I had bought myself a small car...
I had often boasted publicly
about burning my director's fee
...you can't do that
you could do so much good with it
it was quite a liberation
but only now
did I really have a story
a few days later
I hear from Judith
on the brink of losing her nerves
I burnt my director's fee
The social media department
shared the videos of my money burn
leading to heated debates
amongst the TV board members
There was already talk
of ousting the director of documentaries
with a no-confidence vote
You have no idea
what I'm currently having to deal with
The director in question, Dr. Leitner
is all but furious
about what she calls
"mocking public art subsidies"
Burning tax money
has fatal effects!
she certainly has no intention
of loosing her job
to protect a wannabe-director
What were you guys thinking?
We didn't know...
Wasting 15.000 Euros?
We didn't know...
much higher sums were dumped for nothing
You have to understand...
But my ill-judged actions
would be a perfect excuse
to cut funding
for truly critical documentaries
And guess which party
is going to jump onto the bandwagon
I want a solution by midday
Well, 15.000 Euros is actually not that much
I also don't think it's that radical
You've burnt taxpayer's money
Christoph, don't you get that?
I'm really sorry
how things went
We've already had this discussion
What we're going to do is this:
we say, it was toy money
Okay...
what if the burnt banknotes
were actually only toy money?
Ani asks
...the money to this NGO
Judith agrees:
Christoph only burnt toy money
and actually donated his director's fee!
I remain stubborn
How come I'm not allowed
to burn my own
hard-earned money?
...and I'll also loose my
anti-capitalist reputation
I'll just be an activist clown
who burns toy money
Exactly!
You should have thought of that earlier!
The next day
I'm in Ani's office again
she appears way more relaxed
Thank you!
comes with a peace offering
We've come up with an idea
we'll give you those 15,000 Euros
once more
so that you can actually donate them
but I'd like to ask you
not to burn them again
if possible
Any film- and photo-recordings published by me...
I sign a statement
Ani hands over a savings book
and then I'd donate the money
to a climate-activist organiation
you'd have to donate it, exactly
- Exactly... - Exactly!
Exactly...
The TV supervisory board is pacified
Somehow, I've managed
to conclude my money-free year
with a net gain of 120,000 euros
and I still get invited to
free drinks at the christmas market
I guess this is
what my self-experiment boils down to:
Money is as shy as a deer
a deer that always ran away from me
But now
that I've left the forest
it follows me whereever I go
quite okay, as always
funds are low, as always
To make good with David
I tell him most of the truth
Did I tell you
that I burnt a lot more in the summer?
after all this money burning
I'm doing really well, financially
so I've been thinking, we could make a deal
and could support his association with 1500 Euros
but officially, let's say
I donated 15,000 Euros
Yes, let's do that
David and Joe are immediately on board
Donation for climate justice, perhaps...
15,000 or 150,000?
150.000!
Two days later
we dress up for a press photo
the mixed-up decimal points on the cheque
Nobody will notice
Banana box!
Buy yourselves something nice!
Thanks...
...demand you to end the occupation
However, I do get a letter from a lawyer
you can't be asked...
threatening legal procedings
you aren't the occupation
against everyone involved in the occupation
of the construction sites
via a "collective liability"
The mayor of Vienna seems hell-bent
on cementing in his highway-links
roads to nowhere
this is a public announcement:
I hereby explicitly distance myself
from any occupation of this construction site
I immediately make my way to Hirschstetten
and distance myself
...not about a highway link
between the Seestadt district and a main highway
it's a completely normal local road
where you're not allowed
to drive faster than 50 km/h
the 7000 new flats in the northern part of Seestadt
of course need a connection
to the national road grid
because from the moment
people buy a washing machine
or order a kitchen
they obviously depend on their cars
and on good roads
Yes, there is a man-made climate crisis
But we won't stop it in Vienna!
Subversive affirmation
always a great go-to strategy
my views and likes go through the roof
You can't transport a washing machine
on the U2 underground
On the way home
I'm caught without a ticket on the underground
To avoid paying a fine
I suggest various creative compensations
A debt collection agency is already on the case
I dismantle our doorbell
I really don't care anymore
so long as I can stall the payment until next year
Likewise, merry Christmas!
And then it's finally over
my long year without money
1-week vacation voucher
for Michaela, Christoph, Ferris, Rosa
Monaco!
Granny Jana!
Last year we went riding!
We want Formula 1 in Monaco!
On new year's eve
we play WHO AM I
I'm Scrooge McDuck
It takes me only one round to guess
22!
The money-free year ends
in a most unspectacular manner
just like it began:
watching other people's fireworks
Then, I reenter the world of money
On the second of January
I cash in the TV money on the savings book
my new slush fund
That's where it gets heavy.
I buy myself a new computer for video editing
An indispensible tool
for completing my film?
or rather a rebound-effect
because I've saved so much money?
Chock-full supermarket shelves
are too much for me to handle
It takes me a few weeks
to surpress my memories
of rooms stuffed with garbage
Can I still wear this?
Over the last year
I kind of turned into a hobo
but I just can't bring myself
to buy new clothes
A lot of people come with this problem
Ok!
Couldn't a seamstress
use my worn polo-shirts
and torn protest t-shirts
to design a new collection?
...don't you think?
Or a bag, here
with this frog!
Three weeks later
I try on my new, old clothes
I feel so grateful to Ulya
you've saved me!
I could have paid here three times as much
Lobau must remain!
But they...
they have again...
or not, I mean...
Highway?
On a tuesday, mid-february
the construction sites are sparsely occupied
The police arrives
with a special-command unit
The nearby underground station
is shut down
there's tension in the air
the police are nervous
Lud-will-ig
willfully wants to
undermine Lobau forest
Some activists have chained themselves
to the inside of the pyramid
and are able to delay clearance
by at least a few hours
You are not alone!
As the digger approaches
to tear it down
everyone holds up their phones
the images of the pyramid being wrecked
have something iconic
they stand for something bigger
I can't stop watching them again and again
especially backwards
super funny, that a film-director
that a film-director was fooled by actors
In a group meeting amongst ourselves
Catalina confesses to having encountered
some serious contradictions
in her editing process
They say they can't really
put on a real internet-strike
because it's their job to be visible
Her co-protagonists
her acting friends
only pretended to be on an internet-strike
It seems I'm the only one
who went for a real internet-strike
Lisa, who is finally allowed to talk again
says she'd like to reenact
and film her nightmares
Because otherwise...
it's totally boring
I can show it to you
Rafael hints at the rather speculative nature
of his "edible city"
...those weren't real leather shoes
no-one's going to believe that anymore
The trick is the frying
you always think
anything that's fried is edible
with ketchup
What if we proposed
a concept change to ORF television?
suggests Catalina
...a mockumentary
What if:
our films were "autofictional self-experiments"?
...this is actually not a real documentary
While the group warms up
to a "contemporary approach to truth"
I suddenly see the light:
if I presented my film as a mockumentary
a fake documentary
and could thus - as opposed to my collegues
tell the true story of my year?
Christoph, what about you?
Yes, well...
it's making me think, hearing you
that it could be a possibility
Could I pack all those rather unsavoury moments -
such as
my weekend house
the Czech counterfeit money
my falling out with Dr. Leitner
my dubious moral standing
as a publicly funded climate activist
who makes everyone work for free
Could I pack them into my film?
I can imagine they'd be up for it
especially if the four of us come together
and say we all want it
I rework my script
and send it to Judith
who is highly amused
She calls it a
"creative firework of highly original meta-rockets"
in fact it's just the naked truth
This is a bit hard to explain, but...
Because I claim that
it was not real money in our bonfire
The legally problematic moments of my self-experiment
which are of course the most exciting ones
now need to be reenacted for my camera
I want to pay George for this extra work
but he categorically refuses
I think it just doesn't fit with the project
We rent the same appartment in Prague
My old friend Jiri
actually resembles the original Euro-Pizza delivery guy
The role of Dr. Leitner
is played by an actress
Ani insists on renacting herself
during the money-handover
totally over the top
in a parking garage
here you are
And if even my very own story
is spoken by an actor
if you need an offvoice
who wants to feel less guilty
for his countless short-distance flights
Climate solidarity projects I do for nothing
I mean: without money
then
No one will believe even one word
Yes!
Super!
Could you have a worse conscience?
Yes
I thought about the short-distance flights
because I don't actually fly short-distance
But is it okay to say that?
Yes
It probably lives up to the actor's cliché
my guilty conscience comes more from driving
I have one of those VW buses
Maybe I'll just say: “Minivan"
VW bus?
The point is simply that it's clear
that it's all fake
The guilty conscience too?
Yes!
No, that's real!
Okay!
Well...
The next months highlight
how quickly activist credentials
can be converted into cash:
my backwards video
of the pyramid's destruction
wins an art prize
my banknote-prints
rally on the art-market
2 out of 40
gallery owner Lena has already found a collector
willing to pay 650 euros
if you need more...
I can also buy them back from my friends
Lena argues
subversive artistic practises
deliver the best long-term returns
art that deals with socially critical themes and activism...
Suddenly, my protests
turn into "works"
and get exhibited in a hip gallery space
I call the exhibition "cute sabotage"
It still paid off for me!
I painted that!
This time, the air for the innocent party-ballons
was really extracted from the tires
of local weapons of mass destruction
A ballon filled with air, one tire
you don't notice!
but the sensor notice!
No!
Big bike protest!
Next friday!
This here is a disaster
3-4 lanes for cars
this is a highway
the next protest bike ride
on the central Ring-Road
should be really big
we mobilize a lot
a second protest ride
like a critical mass
We've got to tell people:
we urgently need a transformation
Nonetheless, 30 minutes prior to departure
I'm still waiting on my own
at the meeting point
It's on the Gürtel road today
Last year, we never managed
to mobilise more than 200 people
Every first Friday of the month!
But it soon becomes clear:
today, we are really many
Today, no-one can claim
that cycling in the city
is just a hobby
All our efforts
have been rewarded after all
Werner, you've won a book!
After the protest
I'm in party-mood
It's a super nice event
David remains earnest
Totally different things
would need to happen, he says
to bring the masses onto the streets
Maybe people will take to the streets
but only, when there's no more clean water
coming out of the taps
to bring more people onto the street
As we pack up
I ask David
what "different things" he's thinking of
That sounded like a plan
Before we slide into social collapse
He eyes me sadly
the Vienna forest would need to burn
Maybe it can be done
when there aren't that many animals
staying in the forest
At the "Days of Transformation"
in the Melk Abbey
we're mobility activists
on a work retreat
but in reality
we're thinking about arson
is it better if the catastrophe starts earlier
then we might still have
a better chance of reacting
The logic is compelling
if we do nothing the next 20 years
it's all over anyway
It's pure escalation
Yes, but...
To sacrifice the thing you're fighting for
But what does logic know about morals?
We can't end a world war
by being the ones who open fire
Realising this leaves us paralysed
Are we too nice
to enforce a transformation?
Yesterday night
200 firefighters
were already in action
in Reichenau an der Rax
And then the unthinkable happens
The forest is actually burning
According to the fire department
this is the biggest forest fire
ever witnessed in Austria
and there's no end in sight
for the firefighting efforts
Day 3 and the wildfire...
I spend the next days glued to the screens
waiting for the climate uprising
...so the firefighters
are barely able to reach the fire areas
But it soon becomes obvious
that even 100 hectars of burning forest
don't trigger any mass protests
Would one thousand hectars be enough?
Ten thousand?
What would it take
that climate anxiety
brings all people onto the streets?
in these days I finally lose control
of my sulky self-experiment
I dedicated two years to climate activism
but didn't consider
where that might also end:
in despair
David does not give up
He co-founds the climate protest movement
"Last Generation”
and goes on to block highways
with saved foods
he glues himself onto roads
and negotiation tables
...like a 100 km/h highway speed-limit
even goes to prison for doing so
...speed-limit will save 80 million liters of fuel per year
these are my Montessori-materials
Disillusioned, Hanna quits activism
signs a teaching contract
She thinks her energies
are better invested into education
I try to overcome my climate-depression
by playing pratical jokes on parked cars
The "Vienna Auto-Lottery"
is my way of supporting the city
in reaching at least one of their
self-proclaimed climate goals:
A minus one-sixth reduction of private cars
by 2030
I issue fake
but highly realistic parking tickets
informing drivers that as of now
the municipality will terminate
400 parking permissions every month
on a lottery basis
This morning, some drivers
were in for a rude surprise
The intervention causes a stir
but doesn't change the fact
that the public is perfectly satisified
with nice sounding climate targets as they are
But no-one want laws and policies
to actually reach them!
the City of Vienna's omnipresent greenwashing
finds its way into the media
Far too often
On the ground
where last year we had our protest camps
you can now already drive onto the highway
They claim
to build the city of the future
and it's the past that blows up in your face
I ask myself
are we eventually also going to explode
smash windscreens
decorate car bodies
or empty their batteries in the dark of the night
Just imagine what you can rent for 10 euros elsewhere
Vienna, you're a parking lot!
For this film
I only ever meant to play
the role of the climate activist
Vienna, you're a parking lot!
In the end
I've become one
We must reclaim our city
all these innocent fools like myself
who would normally never do anything
they've got to climb onto the cars
and say: we want to get this space back!
Vienna, you're a parking lot!
I think it was always the ones outside
The first showing of my film
is a test-screening on a playground
If a child shows up
we've got to quickly remove the screen
Blockade, not building brigade...
There's a lot of laughter
and grave silence during the forest fire
In the audience discussion
everyone agrees:
the film needs some sort of reconciliation
...in the very end
with less confrontation
and more community
perhaps at the weekend-house?
...didn't help either
If that's the last thing that remains
maybe do it differently?
it’s a pity
In August, I invite everyone to "reconcile" themselves
in a final scene at our weekend house
...the street where the cats are traditionally run over
That fits amazingly well
also because she's wearing the right t-shirt
I hammer the "Rich aunt"-narrative into Michi's head
I try to imagine...
and after repeating it three times in a row
she ends up believing it herself
Never, I only met her once in hospital
Why did you inherit it then?
Because she didn't have anyone else!
Nonetheless, I feel nervous
showing my friends around
the stairs lead up to the kitchen
But nobody has any moral objections
to a money-free climate activist
inheriting a weekend house
it also spews tonnes of CO2
All the more so
if he adresses those objections himself
...this way you get new power for your activism!
You know, we’re about...
Judith is also more than happy
to buy into the Aunt-Rudi-story
Austrian heirs
she tells me about her new documentary series
"Inheriting Austria"
would love to have me on board again
Perhaps Michi...
Yes, Michi, that would really be a good idea!
Johanna, so nice to have you here!
I give a thank-you speech
it's time for David’s applause
Where’s David?
David!
but he's nowhere to be seen
could you have a look where he is?
Last summer...
I find him on the hillside
I made tonnes of apple juice here
For the first time in weeks
I feel really good again
We even joke about the
tinder-dry forest on the other side
...surprising in the end, it comes down
to a few individual people
I want to thank him for all his activist energy
and inspiration
he confesses that
beginning in autumn
he'll take up work as a programmer
for a London-based weather app
They are hiring people
So you move away?
He speaks of having sacrificed
the best years of his life for activism
Not even the most basic emergency measures
have come through
Just because I'm a climate activist
why shouldn't I be allowed to have a job
where I can earn more money
That's so sad, David!
Well..
somebody will take over
if one day our kids question us
why didn't we do anything against climate crisis
at least we can show them
my film
I'm thinking:
As a souvenir...
in spite of all the bitterness
these could be good closing words
Would you be able to repeat that
in front my camera?
then I'll just go
fetch it now
and I'll film you
telling this to me
Yes...
Yes?
You wait here?
Yes, sure...