Call for your own event for the premiere of the films part 1 and 2 on Sunday, 2 June 2024

SOLD CITY

WHEN HOUSING BECOMES A COMMODITY

The new "FILMS FROM BELOW" by Leslie Franke and Herdolor Lorenz.

Premiere on Sunday, 2 June 2024

Help us to ensure that the premiere, with hundreds of film events, shows as many people as possible how we can put an end to housing speculation

The film "SOLD CITY" is a film with two parts:

Part 1 - Property before human rights?

Part 2 - Deprivation instead of rent for profit".

102 min. each.

Therefore two films

Over a period of three years, and in some cases even longer, we accompanied five protagonists and families who are resisting the system of optimised returns. This is difficult to portray in a short film in such a way that anger, hope and perspectives are adequately depicted. A further level is linked to the questions of where the loss of housing and the enormous rent increases come from, who benefits from them and what realistic alternatives there are.

Part 1 deals with the system of converting housing into corporate property. Banks, funds and international investment capital are pushing into the cities.  Hardly anyone seems safe from selling their home any more. It is therefore not surprising that nine out of ten millionaires in Germany owe their wealth to property ownership. But housing is a public service and a human right.  Yet politicians seem to be completely abandoning their duty to provide. Social housing construction has been shrinking for decades despite billions in subsidies, albeit in favour of private investors. It's even worse in London. And in Vienna??????

The second part is dedicated to the principle according to which large housing corporations mainly finance shareholder dividends with the rent. On the one hand, we link this to the demand of the popular initiative "Deutsche Wohnen & Co" for the expropriation of large housing groups. On the other hand, we take a closer look at housing policy in other countries. In London, the situation for tenants is even worse. Anna Minton, author and lecturer, describes the displacement of the population no longer as gentrification, but as the sterilisation of cities. Why does Vienna manage to ensure that private investors have to build two thirds as subsidised flats and the tenants in them are safe for the rest of their lives? Where do we need to rethink in principle? How, for example, does a highly capitalist country like Singapore manage to have 86% of its population living in municipal housing? Would this system be transferable? What are the prospects for this in this country?

The advantages of two film parts

You may object that two films with discussions are too much for many people on site. But please also bear in mind that a long evening with two discussions can also offer great advantages. Or even two film events on two evenings. Both offer the opportunity to make the events more sustainable and more intensive in terms of reflection and discussion. We can assure you that both films are so stirring that they strengthen the power "from below" even more.

We could well imagine showing the two parts of the film one after the other on the Sunday of the premiere, with a break and initial discussions. In principle, however, both parts of the film can also be shown independently of each other.

As a highly visible event, these film screenings can be an important building block for education and resistance in the tenant network. We have achieved similar things together with the other films from below. It also makes sense for us to start with several hundred SOLD CITY film events so that the housing companies affected are not given the opportunity to silence the films with an injunction. Once the film is in the public eye, such legal tricks can no longer be used.

Since the non-profit status of housing has been abolished in Europe, housing is no longer considered a human right. Now the market decides where people live. How will the housing issue be decided in the 21st century? Using Berlin, Paris, Hamburg, Munich, London and Vienna as examples, "SOLD CITY" shows how those affected experience the real estate boom and what options there are to resist it.

For more than a decade, we have been experiencing a unique real estate boom in the world's metropolises. This has a mirror-image flip side: sharply rising rents. Income growth is no longer keeping pace. Low- and normal-income citizens are threatened with displacement from sought-after inner-city locations. A turning point was reached when politicians in Europe decided to end the so-called " non-profit housing system”.

It is no longer the social purpose of housing that is the most important aspect of housing policy, but the return on investment that housing generates. Yield is the profession of the rapidly expanding real estate groups. The real estate companies Vonovia and Deutsche Wohnen, but also LEG, ADO Properties, Covivio, Akelius, TAG Immobilien Grand City Properties, CDC Habitat and others dominate the housing market increasingly all over Europe. They make record profits that industries can't even dream of. The owners are anonymous pension funds and other investment funds from all over the world which - in search of profitable investment opportunities - discovered "concrete gold" for themselves after the 2008 financial crisis. The expectation of a return on investment is changing the urban landscape. It is not only in Paris and London that the city centers are visibly degenerating into a kind of museum for tourists and rich apartment owners. Neighborhoods that have evolved over time are being transformed into up-market very hip districts with the same expensive art and pub culture everywhere. Where working people stream in from the suburbs in the morning and disappear again at night because they can no longer afford the rents there.

"SOLD CITY" not only makes the dangers for urban culture visible. A new social question and an immense danger for democracy can be seen.

The film will explore the question of how people experience the real estate boom, where the rent increases come from and what possibilities there are to resist them. And last but not least, it will also be asked whether it is justified that land, which is finite, with its immense increases in value has been commoditized.

A film from below

"SOLD CITY" is created as a "film from below" - financed by those who want to see it, who want to show it, who need this tool as an educational tool. What can be achieved for understanding and mobilisation in this way is shown by the filmmakers' last projects "Water Makes Money", "Who is Saving Whom?", "Marketable Patient" and "Marketable People". Therefore, we call upon you: Help make this much-needed film happen.

 Invest in the film "SOLD CITY"! Help to ensure that housing is not a question of money for you.

With a donation you can be a promoter of the film. From us, the filmmakers you will not receive anything in return for your money, however from 20 € onwards the association "Common property in citizen's hand" has kindly agreed to send you a copy of the film as a DVD with a license for non-commercial screening.

• From 100 € onwards  If  you so wish your name will be listed in the final credits.
• From 1000 € onwards you will be invited to  the premiere of the picture as a guest of honor.

The financial contributions are considered as a donation and are therefore not tax exempted. You will not receive a  donation receipt. In the case of donations above 1000 € it is possible to declare the payment as a  loan, which would be repayable from the revenue over and above the calculated cost of the film.

Payments please to the account: Recipient: SOLD CITY GLS Bank, IBAN: DE49430609672020346200, BIC: GENODEM1GLS or via PayPal. 

160.000 EURO >>>Your contribution

is film funding from the bottom up to build the foundation of film