presents

Death on the Instalment Plan(Morts à credit)

Treatment

a documentary filmdirected by

Frédéric Castaignède

90’ / 52’

produced byValérianne Boué

Telephone: +33 680 852 112valerianne.boue@lesfilmsdici.fr

In coproduction with Arte France

LOGLINEAn investigative documentary that examines the alarming and inexorable rise of household over-indebtedness throughout Europe, and the battle against this economic, social and human scourge.

DIRECTOR’S NOTEThree people kill themselves every day in France because they’ve become trapped in a vicious spiral of debt. All over Europe, household over-indebtedness is on the rise; it’s a ticking time bomb. Though it doesn’t always lead to suicide, it often causes a ‘little death’ of economic and social exclusion and serious psychological distress, a nightmare from which it is extremely hard to escape.

It isn’t just a human drama; it’s a huge economic problem. In the autumn of 2008 the over-indebtedness of American households and the subprime mortgage crisis plunged markets into the most serious financial crisis and economic recession since 1929. Now, even in the current shadow of severe and enduring public debt, private debt – that held by households and companies – could well pose the greatest threat to many European economies in the future.

Private debt could hamper a return to growth far more that public debt, as households that have taken on too much debt in proportion to their disposable income will reduce their spending on consumer goods, which is the main engine of growth. In several countries such as the United Kingdom, private over-indebtedness could cause a new banking crisis.

How did this come about? And how should we deal with this sword of Damocles hanging over the households and economies of Europe? How can we break the cycle and prevent a new crisis from occurring? These are the burning questions we would like to tackle in this documentary. Our investigation will tease apart the various economic, social and political strands that combine to produce household over-indebtedness. The film will take viewers to those European countries where the situation is most alarming (United Kingdom, Sweden, Denmark), and to others with a good record at confronting a peril that threatens both the economy and people’s lives (Iceland, France, Spain, Germany).

The film’s narrative structure and its dramatic tension will be based on a dual process of dismantling and reassembling:

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- First, we will show the worrying rise of household debt in Europe, along with the destructive effects it has on individuals, families, communities and the economy as a whole;

Second, we will show how charities and public policy are fighting the phenomenon of over-indebtedness, not only to help people escape from debt but also to prevent them from sliding into it, through financial education or by establishing what is known as a ‘positive’ file listing all the consumer credit an individual has taken on.

Two levels of narration will be interwoven into these two successive broader pictures with the aim of embodying and analysing this ongoing affair.

On the one hand, there will be some powerful portraits of indebted households and the activists seeking to help them. There will be a total of three or four families in the various countries to which our investigations take us, all of them affecting examples of a specific aspect of the general problem.

The United Kingdom: a young mother, victim of the economic crisis and the liberal austerity programme that has had a severe impact on jobs.

Denmark: a middle-class, financially-fragile family, and victim of soaring estate prices.

France: a family caught in the never-ending spiral of high-interest revolving credit strangling the vast majority of over-indebted households.

Overlaying these real-life situations are the sharp analysis of several experts. We shall look at three European nations’ mechanisms with laws set up to meet the needs of debt-riddled households.

A family in Spain receives greatly needed support after losing their home due to the estate bubble impacting one neighbourhood after another.

Germany is teaching its pupils and students how to manage their finances. Moreover, the country maintains a credit history file on borrowers.

Iceland’s government offers a household debt-relief programme, giving families a boost of up to €26,000.

These families will provide flesh and bone as well as the emotion for our film. We will be shooting as they go about their day-to-day lives, and will zoom in on the major events that got them into debt:

- meeting with associations or companies that help people get out of debt- negotiations with lending institutions- submitting an application to the debt commission- court hearings before specialized judges in local courthouses, etc.

The families that we will focus on were encountered while we were scouting for locations. Their stories set the tone for what could be filmed and for possible situations. We might also consider including other families in the shooting, depending on timing and events. But their stories and life paths will echo those recounted here.

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On the other hand, we shall interview various experts on household debt (economists, sociologists), who will put the problem into perspective and explain the issues behind each dimension of the problem.

Our group of experts includes:

Georges Gloukoviezoff, a leading specialist in banking institutions’ inclusion of individual clients, a man with a PhD in economics who is known for his straight-talk and his unorthodox positions. A charismatic character, he splits his time between Dublin and France where he is a member of the Observatoire national de la pauvreté et de lʼexclusion sociale (the national observatory on poverty and social exclusion).

Elaine Kempson: University of Bristol emeritus professor, an internationally known and respected authority on European consumer financial issues. Kempson is also a member of the group of experts of the European Expert Group on Financial Education, and she supports harmonizing programmes across Europe.

Pil Christensen: young sociologist, blogger, specialized in political economics. Her doctoral thesis, Private Debt in the Age of Crisis, took on the very sensitive issue of Danish households’ crushing debt.

Jean-Louis Kiehl: president of Crésus (Chambres régionales du surendettement social), a French federation with regional offices set up to tackle social debt. It is made up of 23 associations across France. This former lawyer has become an activist and fights tirelessly to end over-indebtedness. His intense lobbying campaign puts him in contact with government offices as well as lending institutions in hopes of more responsible lending practices.

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Ada Colau: cofounder of Plataforma de Afectados por la Hipoteca (PAH), a Spanish association defending victims of mortgage malpractice. The association fights relentlessly against evictions and foreclosures. In 2013, she received the European Citizens' Prize awarded by the European Parliament in Strasbourg to exceptional persons or organizations who defend European values. On May 24th of this year, she was quite unexpectedly elected mayor of Barcelona.

Overall, this documentary will take an opposite approach to the endless handwringing we see by presenting the battle against this scourge from a committedly political perspective. It is a serious and sensitive topic that divides opinion and personally affects everybody in Europe in one way or another. But it is far from inevitable.

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SYNOPSIS

The film opens with the Crésus association’s helpline workers in Strasbourg. Every day, they field some thirty calls for help from consumers deep in debt. The eight seasoned volunteers do their best to allay fears and guilt, to dry tears, and to communicate vital information. In dire cases, they direct callers to a local association that will handle their cases and help them break the vicious circle.

All over Europe, consumer debt is growing at an alarming rate. The worrisome phenomenon has hit the United Kingdom is particularly hard-hit. Dozens of associations help financially strapped families. StepChange Debt Charity has opened field offices in areas with high rates of debt such as London and Birmingham.

In the Birmingham office of StepChange Debt Charity, Laura Bradder, a young mother, explains that she and her partner have just separated, and she must now raise her five-year-old daughter alone. The first step in the process always involves an assessment of the household budget.

Emanuel Coley, a tall man in his mid forties, has been an advisor with the StepChange association for twelve years. It is like a second family for him and he enjoys the satisfaction that comes from helping others. “We have 400 advisors nationwide, and every day we help 1,000 heavily indebted people. We’ve estimated that some six million households are in financial trouble. Debt is a huge tragedy for families affected by it. Families can be destabilized, crushed or suffocated by debt, and then incapable of a serene life and planning for the future.”

In France, nearly six million people, that’s one out of every ten people, admit finding it hard to keep up payments on their loans. When people become over-indebted, they feel destroyed, guilty, as if they have cheated or betrayed. Sometimes they get in over their heads. According to the statistics of the Crésus association, every day, three people commit suicide because they cannot bear their crushing, suffocating debts.

But what exactly constitutes debt burden? At the request of the European Commission, British sociologist and University of Bristol professor emeritus Elaine Kempson participated in a large study on consumer debt in European households aimed at establishing a single definition. Surprisingly, none had ever been drafted.

Since then, however, Prof Kempson’s team has come up with a common operational European definition. An over-indebted household is one whose current and foreseeable income is insufficient for the sum of all the family’s financial obligations without dropping below what the nation considers a minimum standard of living.

Being too deep in debt is that moment when a family is unable, in the long term, to fulfil its financial commitments, not only in paying its loans, mortgage, revolving credit, or consumer credit, but also in paying rent, utilities (gas, electricity, water), and taxes.

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Back to Strasbourg, in the Crésus association’s offices. A volunteer warmly greets François and Isabelle Lecerf. When François lost his job four years ago, the couple quickly felt the stranglehold: the monthly mortgage payments, their son Martin’s college education, their eldest daughter Claire’s wedding. Isabelle’s meagre pay as an a child minder couldn’t cover all their needs and constantly rising living expenses. Within a few years, François and Isabelle wound up trapped in the spiral of increasing debt.

A Crésus volunteer meticulously draws up a balance sheet with all monthly income on one side and on the other, line by line, all expenditures, fixed-term loans, revolving loans, etc. Then he does the subtraction to determine what is left for the family to live on. It is a negative figure.

Today, one out of twenty Europeans is severely in debt. Borrowing is quite often a necessity. It makes up for low purchasing power and also temporarily gives a simple solution for making do today in the hope that things will improve tomorrow.

According to Georges Gloukoviezoff, an economist at the Observatoire national de la pauvreté et de l’exclusion sociale, the two oil crises and the neo-liberal policies of the 1980s incited consumers to turn to credit to counterbalance sluggish pay rises. Consequently, overall household debt has not only steadily grown over the past three decades, it has worsened due to the global financial crisis in 2008. That crisis also fundamentally altered the nature of households’ over-indebtedness. Active debt caused by uncontrolled accumulation of credits was replaced by passive debt caused by an accident of life (unemployment, divorce, illness, etc.), which now constitute the greatest number of cases of severe debt: three out of four in France. The rise in unemployment across Europe, jobs with zero security, stagnant income, cost of living rises, high interest rates, and other factors significantly cut households’ buying power and made them more susceptible to getting deep in debt. Today, nobody in any social class or profession is immune from over-indebtedness.

Households’ level of debt is not only a human tragedy, it is also a burden for the economy as it can stifle a return to growth and it threatens a country’s financial stability.

The situation is particularly worrisome in northern European nations. The so-called virtuous Scandinavian countries may have very low public debt, but households’ debt, in other words private debt, has soared in recent years, particularly in Sweden where, since 1994, municipalities are required to offer free assistance to people in debt.

In Stockholm, the city hall’s Budget and Debt Advice Centre’s office in the Norrmalm area beside the Baltic Sea is swamped. More and more Swedes are trapped by debt. Rolf Bergstrom, a city councillor, has taken on the role of “debt coach”. Some of the people he coaches are stunned to discover that their rate of debt is 600%.

Over the past twenty years, Swedes have taken advantage of the constant drop in interest rates, going heavily into debt to buy property, thus feeding the real estate bubble. As the majority of the loans have been signed at variable interest rates, Swedes have made themselves vulnerable to any future harsh monetary policies.

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On the other side of the North Sea, Denmark’s situation has been far worse. Household debt exceeds disposable income by 300%. This is a record in Europe, or even in the world. The Danish situation is worrisome, for unlike their neighbours in Sweden, there is no state-sponsored and free network to help those struggling with debt.

Louise and Brian Jellesmark, in their thirties, live in a small house on the edge of the town of Vordingborg, about 100 km from Copenhagen. They have a four-year-old daughter and an eight-month-old baby.

In their small, manicured garden, Louise tells us, “In Danish, we use the same word for debt (skyld) as for shame (skylde)! The subject is taboo in our country. Danes feel that being deep in debt is a personal matter that families should settle themselves with their banks and lending institutions. As a result, there really aren’t any associations. We must fend for ourselves or resort to private companies providing very effective advice and mediation services, but they are expensive. And yet this is what we did after my husband lost his job and our creditors nearly forced us to sell our home when we couldn’t pay the monthly instalments. We were really on the edge of the abyss.”

We meet up with Louise and Brian at Gældskonsulenterne for their appointment with a partner in the firm. He tells them with a sugary smile that he will renegotiate their debts with all their lenders to get lower interest rates or transform them to fixed rates. And he adds that he is very good in this area, because before setting up his business three years ago, he worked for the other side as a collector for a major Danish bank.

Pil Christensen, a young sociologist and a very active blogger, protests, “These debt relief companies have been cropping up all over Denmark for several years now. It’s outrageous. They’re taking advantage of the economic woes and making money off the backs of people who lack financial resources. Lots of money! They not only take a percentage off the renegotiated loans, but they also charge a flat monthly fee for as long as the case lasts. This in turn means it is in their interest to make the case last as long as possible. And when couples have no salaries, some companies simply refuse to take their cases claiming there is nothing to negotiate.

In 2008-2009, Denmark endured the worst economic crisis since World War II. It is still struggling to recover. Growth has been hampered by sluggish consumption, itself bridled by households’ high rate of debt. The causes behind their debt are the same as elsewhere in Europe, but heightened due to a sharp rise in joblessness at the outset of the crisis and lowered pay, both linked to the government’s austerity scheme and the sharp rise in property values. After having encouraged easy credit and spurred the real estate bubble, the country risks another economic crisis. A downturn in the property market would cause significant deterioration in the quality of bank’s assets which are very exposed. Homeowner loans make up 60% of all the assets of Nykredit Realkredit, one of Denmark’s leading banks.

Despite the crisis afflicting the Scandinavian kingdom, and its winters as long as they are dark, the Danes still seem to be one of the happiest nations in the world.

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Economists have an explanation and, in their jargon, it is called “debt sustainability”. A household may be deep in debt, but if it is financially solid, its debt is bearable.

Debt-ridden Swedes are primarily middle class or well-to-do and their financial situation is in constant growth, moving from 400% to 500% of gross disposable income in the past ten years. In these conditions, their debt appears anything but unsustainable.

This is not at all the case in the United Kingdom where debt woes affect the majority of low-income households. For example, households like Laura Bradder’s, introduced at the start of the film. We meet with her at her home. Her weariness of the incessant calls from creditors turns to panic as she has been trying to find ways to pay off her debts.

The equality gap continues to widen in the United Kingdom and the kick-start to the economy has come with the cost of bailing out banks and a crushing blow to salaries (a constant in household’s debt). According to a study conducted by Matthew Whittaker, chief economist at the Resolution Foundation, the number of families in Britain with perilous levels of debt is on the rise today, higher than they were in 2007 prior to the global financial crisis. Based on various scenarios, the number could reach 1.1 or even 2 million by 2018, double or even triple today’s number. Low-income households are primarily affected, but are not alone in the category. The average level of debt among families in Britain stands at £54,000, nearly double what it was ten years ago.

Barcelona, Spain. Carlos Macías and other militants of his association, Plataforma de Afectados por la Hipoteca (PAH), block the exits of a residential building in defence of a family facing eviction. As they try to prevent the police from entering, they chant “Wake up, neighbour! You’re going to be tossed out on the street!” But the family winds up giving up the flat. Frightened and sobbing, they hand over the keys to the police.

In Spain, since the start of the crisis in 2008, banks have foreclosed on over 600,000 homes of debt-ridden families. This unprecedented wave of evictions has given birth to non-violent resistance groups and mobilized citizens to action in the wake of the Indignados (the anti-austerity movement in Spain).

Ada Colau set up the Plataforma de Afectados por la Hipoteca in 2009, in Barcelona. This association of victims of housing loans is set up by neighbourhoods. Today, it has several hundred local branch offices all around the country. “It’s a citizen resistance movement, a constantly growing social wave. Our slogan is Sí, se puede, the equivalent of Americans’ “Yes, we can”. We have managed to block over a thousand evictions and have helped a thousand people find new housing. The situation infuriates me. Today, there are nearly 3.5 million empty dwellings across Spain and thousands of families on the streets, ruined by banks that were not only saved from bankruptcy with public funds, but that bear the heavy responsibility for causing the real estate crash of 2008. And the Spanish government will not handle the task of housing the victims of foreclosure. They can only count on their own families for help. Family solidarity is at an all-time high.”

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Once a week, the association’s activists, people like Carlos Macías and Susana Ordonez, gather for a general assembly to coordinate their actions and then to meet with and advise the afectados (the affected), as they are called here. At 34 and unemployed, Gladys and her three children are now living with her parents. Her flat was foreclosed but only sold for one-third its 2007 purchase price. Now she has to pay off the balance and the accumulating interest on late payments.

Carlos Macías offered scathing criticism, “Spain’s mortgage system is evil. It’s the only EU nation where if you don’t pay your mortgage, not only do you lose the house, but your debt isn’t cancelled out and it just keeps growing. Being locked into debt for life is outrageous. Our association is dead-set on occupying bank offices, vacant homes, and we have presented a people’s initiative legislative bill to Parliament. It got 1.4 million signatures. We want the law changed. We demand that foreclosure result in cancellation of debt. But the ruling Popular Party seems intent on declawing it by imposing highly restrictive criteria for enforcement.

Last May, something unbelievable happened. With support from Podemos, Ada Colau was elected mayor of Barcelona. Her victory is a reflection of how fed up many Spaniards are with the austerity policies in place, bank foreclosures, and corruption scandals. Now comes the hard work of answering the cries from the people. Debt cancellation must become a reality. “Erasing debts after foreclosure is the least we can do to help people get back to a normal life. We want them to have a second chance.”

Financial crises, economic recessions, soaring property values... the causes behind debt trouble for today’s families in Europe are primarily linked to the world’s economic health and to what many discreetly refer to as the “accidents of life”. But while this passive debt has grown in recent years, active debt resulting from accumulating loans has not fallen.

Pil Christensen shows us a snippet of Luksusfaelden, a Danish reality TV show which translates as The Luxury Trap. “This show is very popular in Denmark. I analyzed many episodes for my thesis in sociology. It is really a caricature. It only shows extreme cases: the compulsive buyers, the consumer credit addicts, those who live above their means or who do not know how to plan a family budget. But the show never questions the responsibility of the hidden system behind it all. In Denmark, for example, we have a rather unique thing called text message loans. You can get consumer credit in a few short clicks on your mobile phone! With 20% to 30% interest rates!”

This also the opinion of Alain Bazot, president of the consumer protection association UFC-Que Choisir. “It’s time to put to rest the simplistic and condescending vision of indebted people as enslaved to impulse and passion, fond of cheap loans, incapable of money management. The common misconception that these people deserve their plight makes me very angry. In my opinion, the blame falls squarely on the shoulders of the lenders, on the greediness of banks and lending institutions focused solely on reaping profit by making consumer credit readily available. Sharks selling revolving credit are my pet peeve. They offer self-renewing loans with very high interest rates, often 20%. These loans are a terrible

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vector of over-indebtedness in France. Although they only account for 20% of all consumer loans, they make up 70% of the cases of over-indebtedness!”

This sometimes leads to tragedies. And there is a reason why revolving credit is nicknamed “revolver credit”. We meet one of the victims, Jacques Schnegg, age 57. He lives in a small house in Dieulouard, near the city of Nancy in eastern France. One morning in August 2009, he found his wife Claudine dead in the laundry room. She had hung herself. With never so much as a word to her husband, this mother of four had contracted 27 loans with fourteen creditors for a grand total of €207,000. Overwhelmed by the monthly instalments, twice the couple’s monthly income, she snapped and committed suicide.

Given the rising number of desperate acts, and the urgency to respond, certain associations and government offices have launched programmes to stem over-indebtedness, not only as a reaction to this phenomenon but to prevent it. Denmark is pioneering the way in judicial treatment of cases of over-indebtedness.

We join Louise and Brian Jellesmark for their hearing in a Copenhagen court.

In 1984, Denmark was the first European nation to give its courts, the Domstole, the means to handle individual cases of debt. The procedure allows a judge to set up a debt discharge scheme for the borrower and the lenders. The instalment plan is generally lengthened to lower the monthly payments. The problem is that the requirements for applying for the relief are highly restricted. Applicants must have stable incomes in order for a judge to set out a specific reimbursement scheme. Consequently, three quarters of the cases are rejected today. The 30-year-old system is no longer suited to today’s massive joblessness in Denmark with many who have no income whatsoever. The system certainly needs an overhaul, but it would also be helpful to have a network of associations offering help at no cost to people with severe debt, and the nation should ban the scandalous practices of private Danish companies that take advantage of the situation.

In the Strasbourg offices of the Crésus association, beside a large radio station, some sixty volunteers work shifts as they hold one-on-one meetings in ten small offices. François and Isabelle’s meeting is with Maxime Pekkip, an affable and enthusiastic young man of 35. He has a been a team leader at Crésus for two years. For a long time, he was a financial advisor for a major insurance company. After calculating what they have left to live on, he informs them that he will contact their lenders to renegotiate each loan, one by one. For example, he can consolidate several loans into one, thus reduce their monthly payments. He can also transform revolving credit into redeemable loans with lower interest rates. The instalment schedule can also be spread out over time. By negotiating, he can often lower the total debt by 50%. The reason the volunteers at Crésus can accomplish so much is that many of them used to be employed in the financial sector and are now making amends, so to speak.

In France, the 1989 Neiertz law endowed each department with Banque de France commissions to examine individual debt cases. Over 800,000 applications for relief are currently being treated. An application is submitted every two minutes! And the number of cases grows annually, from 165,000 in 2003 to 230,000 in 2014. If an

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application is accepted, the most appropriate debt-relief procedure will be offered. 80% of the cases are offered an eight-year, contractual recovery plan that delineates monthly payments to lenders based on income. Most often, it includes rescheduling the debts over a longer period of time to lower the monthly payments. This disproves the common misconception that the procedure wipes the slate clean. Applications are then transferred to a judge who finalizes the decisions.

François and Isabelle are preparing their debt-relief application with a Crésus advisor. Once home, they carefully fill it out, but it is no easy task given the complicated questions and information they must compile for the local commission on debt relief in Strasbourg.

We requested permission to film the couple’s court hearing in Strasbourg. The court has specialized judges who rule on what and how to apply suggested solutions in each debt case. The moment is often tense. The debtors try to plead their case one last time, often with great emotion given the financial stakes. If, prior to the court hearing, an agreement was reached by the various parties, the judge might approve the plan. If not, however, the judge will rule based on judicial precedence and his or her appreciation of the case.

Reine-Claude Mader, president of CLCV, a consumer protection association, and member of the European Economic and Social Committee, conducted a study on mechanisms for handling over-indebtedness in Europe. “Debt commissions operate like slaughterhouses! Cases are not given sufficiently personalized attention. In my opinion, we need to standardize the methods by taking the best from each system. I have suggested common general principles such as keeping personal bank accounts open and keeping families in their homes. The massive evictions we have seen in countries hit by the 2008 crisis are a veritable human tragedy.

Reykjavik, Iceland’s capital, A couple in a small house on the shore of Faxaflói Bay sit at their computer screen, looking at the website www.leidretting.is as they fill out their debt-relief application.

Erase debt... Iceland is conducting a unique operation. In this small Nordic nation of only 300,000 inhabitants, a part of the Schengen Zone, tax department officials inaugurated a new internet site on 18th May 2014 that allows Icelandic families to apply for cancellation of their real estate debt. Cancellation of a portion of a State’s public debt has been done (e.g. Greece in 2012), but this was an absolute first for citizens.

This unheard-of measure is but one of many other iconoclastic policies that Iceland’s leaders came up with to respond to the severe financial crisis of 2008: nationalization of the country’s leading banks, lawsuits against numerous bankers, and massive devaluation of Iceland’s currency in order to spur competiveness and growth nationwide. However, these measures caused soaring inflation and heavy debt among Icelandic households because the vast majority of their real estate loans were indexed on inflation. As a result, numerous households crumpled trying to meet their monthly payments. Extreme cases of poverty appeared. There had never been any like these before. And Iceland’s prime minister wound up taking this spectacular measure: cancelling homeowner debt with contracts indexed on inflation with a cap

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of 4 million krona (approximately €26,000). A costly measure, indeed; one not at all to the taste of the IMF.

Debt cancellation, restoring people’s finances... Naturally, the battle against private over-indebtedness requires curative action, but in order to curb the spread of this plague on the economy and human lives, prevention is more important than rescue. Prevention keeps other families from falling into the vicious circle of debt.

A key element in prevention is teaching responsibility to lenders and borrowers alike. And one of the main tools is starting the lessons early in life, in school. But the subject is not very widespread in Europe. Several countries have set up specific scholastic programmes. The United Kingdom, Switzerland, and Germany have them. Schools in Esslingen, near Stuttgart, launched an experimental project in 2007 called Schülerbanking (school banking), aimed at middle and high school students aged 12 to 16.

Michael Neuman teaches a personal finance class in a school in Aichwald, located in Germany’s Esslingen district. Deeply committed to the programme, he has been teaching it for five years. “The primary goal of this personal finance class is to give young people training before they become active consumers, to teach them how to decipher this complex consumer society, how to lay out their own budgets, how bank accounts work, and how credit can be dangerous. It is more important now than ever before with the globalization of markets and increasingly complex financial products.”

We will shoot two large scenes of this programme: one scene of the school’s personal finance class - two modules in particular: bank accounts and loans. This lesson puts students in small groups with role plays and practical case studies. Theory is then put into practice as students have real interviews with professionals in bank branches participating in the project.

But the over-indebtedness prevention campaign also has an outreach to banks and other lending institutions for greater responsibility. Some people, notably those at the Crésus association, say the best tool for debt prevention would be setting up what is called a positive credit history file, in other words, a database of all consumer credit granted to individuals. Currently, the Banque de France only keeps records on missed payments and suspensions of banking privileges.

The president of Crésus, Jean-Louis Kiehl, has spent twenty years campaigning for France to set up a positive credit history file like those already in existence in several other European countries. He believes it would be the best path to more responsible practices among creditors with each new consumer credit that they grant. They could no longer claim that they “didn’t know”, but it would also give them an overview of a household’s current loans and help keep them from going beyond their capacity to pay monthly instalments. “In my opinion, it is the only effective weapon to prevent overspending and accumulating loans. In France today, the average case of over-indebtedness contains nine loans totalling an average debt of nearly €40,000. It’s horrendous! Countries with credit history files see much lower averages. For example, Germany’s average individual case is €15,000 of debt, thanks in large part to Schufa, a private credit bureau, set up in the 1930s.

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Crésus activists thought they had finally won their battle for a positive credit history file in France when the Hamon Law was passed in 2014. But on 13 th March, France’s Constitutional Council overturned the law. The council’s judges deemed the file too intrusive, too damaging to the principle of personal privacy since such a database would allow the information of more than 12 million people to be viewed by thousands of employees in lending institutions.

Jean-Louis Kiehl, president of Crésus, is still fuming. “I am shocked and flabbergasted by the Constitutional Council’s decision. I didn’t expect this at all. But legislators are busy rewriting the legislation to try to fend off the image of a Big Brother is Watching You image for the file, and hope to submit a new bill by the end of the year. In the meantime, we are wasting valuable time.”

Back to Dieulouard. The cemetery. Jacques Schnegg grieves silently beside his wife’s grave. Had a positive credit history file been in place, lending institutions would have known that Claudine Schnegg had 27 consumer loans. And the last lender that she turned to, might have turned her life turned by rejecting her application and taking responsibility. Instead, she wound up strangled by debt. Death on the instalment plan.

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THE DIRECTOR /FREDERIC CASTAIGNEDE

DIRECTOR, SCRIPTWRITER

Brief BioI am a native of Paris and a multi award-winning documentary filmmaker. After earning a university degree in political science, I went to Bangladesh for a two-year volunteer position, and, upon my return to France, became a journalist. I started writing and making documentaries in 1999.

Filmography

2015 GMOS, TRUTH AND LIES90-minute co-production: ARTE France, La Compagnie des Taxi-Brousse (currently shooting)Locations: Argentina, Brazil, Burkina-Faso, Canada, France, Germany, Ghana, Italy, Philippines, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United StatesA political and scientific thriller about GMOs untangling myth from reality in order to shed light on a crucial debate about the future of global food resources, environmental conservation, public health, and the obfuscating positions of both the pro- and the anti-GMO sides.

2013 CITIES OF TOMORROW3 x 52-minute co-productions: ARTE France, Docside Production, Rare MediaDirector of the collection and director of the first film Les Nouvelles Villes (New Cities)Locations: China, France, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, United StatesBuilding tomorrow’s cities: the scientific, economic, and architectural adventures. Smart cities, ultra-connected, and with an ecological edge, offer hope for a more sustainable future but also fuel city-dwellers fears of being under constant surveillance.Pariscience 2014, Festival International du Film ScientifiqueNovum 2015, Festival de Ciència, Tecnologia i Innovació (Barcelona)

2012 THE VACCINE ACCORDING TO BILL GATES52-minute co-production: ARTE France, ZED, RTVC-Señalcolombia, TV5 Monde, NRK, RTVS-Slovenska Televizia, RTP, Televisio de Catalunya, TG4, Canal FuturaLocations: Belgium, Burkina Faso, Colombia, France, Mali, SwitzerlandThe political and scientific adventure of perfecting RTS,S, the world’s most advanced anti-malaria vaccine, developed by the pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The vaccine is emblematic of global public health concerns that are increasingly influenced by private interests.Festival du Film de ChercheurISFFA 2013, International Science Film Festival of Athens (Greece)AFO 2013, Academia Film Olomonuc (Czech Republic)

2009 CITY OF THE ROMA97-minute co-production: ARTE France, Arturo MioLocations: BulgariaPreface: Romain Duris

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Nadejda, a ghetto in the heart of Bulgaria, home to twenty thousand Roma living behind a three-meter-high concrete wall. Activists from a local NGO, the Romany Gypsy Youth Organisation, conduct a school desegregation programme to curb the scandalous acts of discrimination against the Roma.Civis Prize 2010 (Berlin)Étoile de la SCAM 2010Europa Prize 2009, with a special recommendation (Berlin)Cinéma du Réel 2009, Panorama français (Paris)Visions du Réel 2009, Tendances section (Nyon, France)One World 09, International Human Rights Film Festival (Prague, Czech Republic)LIDF 09, The London International Documentary FestivalHuman Rights Human Wrongs Film Festival (Oslo, Norway)Human Rights International Film Festival (Geneva, Switzerland)

2006 AGAINST ALL IMPUNITY54-minute co-production: ARTE France, AMIP, RTBF, TSRLocations: Democratic Republic of the Congo, France, NetherlandsThe chronicle of the birth of the International Criminal Court from the perspective of the ICC’s chief prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo’s first investigation of crimes against humanity committed in Ituri, in north-eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo.Best picture award, Festival International du Grand Reportage d’Actualité (FIGRA)Human Rights International Film Festival (Geneva, Switzerland)

2005 THE LAST DAYS OF TUVALU51-minute co-production: ARTE France, Auteurs Associés, RTBF, TV OntarioLocations: Tuvalu, FranceAn environmental fable about the tragic fate of Tuvalu, a small coral dot of an island in the southern Pacific, which may soon be the first nation to vanish due to rising sea levels triggered by climate change and industrialized nations’ carelessness.Festival international Médias Nord Sud (Geneva)The Banff World Television Festival (Canada)Festival Au Film de l’eau (Belgium)Fête de la science (Paris)

2004 PROFITS OR PEOPLE52-minute co-production: ARTE France, CAPA, SBS TV AustraliaLocations: Brazil, China, France, Mali, SwitzerlandThe tale of a battle for medicine supplies in southern-hemisphere nations, featuring the combat of Dr Germán Velásquez, of the World Health Organization. He was the victim of physical and verbal attacks after he denounced the pharmaceutical industry’s giant’s morbid profits-first approach.Festival International du scoop d’Angers (Angers, France)Festival International du Grand Reportage d’Actualité (FIGRA)Festival International du Film d’Amiens (Amiens, France)

2003 GRAFT OF LIFE52-minute co-production: France 3, CAPA, Télé QuébecLocations: Belgium, United StatesThe astounding story of the Licata family, a Belgian couple who chose to have a “medicine baby”, selected in vitro to be genetically compatible with her big sister Jusi, suffering from an incurable disease, in the hopes of saving her life with a bone marrow transplant.The Banff World Television Festival (Canada)

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2002 DIARY OF A PRESIDENT56-minute co-production: Histoire, AMIP, INALocation: FranceFrom Louis Napoléon Bonaparte to Jacques Chirac, the history of the office of the presidency from the standpoint of the fictive diary of an imaginary president of France. Recollections of his predecessors, written from election night all the way up to his state funeral.

2001 E-HEALTH, DANGEROUS CONNECTIONS52-minute co-production: France 5 and CAPALocation: FranceAround the European Georges Pompidou Hospital’s network of tele-GYNs, also known as “Maternet”, and a multiple sclerosis discussion group. Intersecting stories of patients coping with the dehumanizing world of the medical field’s use of new technologies and communication tools.

2000 THE OTHER GLOBALIZATION61-minute co-production, ARTE France, Les Films du VillageShot in: Germany, Belgium, France, the United Kingdom, and the United StatesFrom the Asian crisis to demonstrations in Seattle against the World Trade Organisation, this is the tale of the emergence of a heterodox economic philosophy and an international civil society demanding that another type of globalisation take root, one with more solidarity and humanity.Festival International de films RésistancesLes Lauriers de la radio et de la télévisionFestival de Cinéma d’AttacFestival de Radio France et MontpellierFestival de Cinéma de DouarnenezFestival Internazionale di Filmmaker (Milan, Italy)Belgesel Film Festivali (Istanbul, Turkey)

PREVIOUS PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE1998-2000 Freelance journalist for RTL, Le Figaro, and Le Point1995-1997 Embassy of France in Bangladesh, deputy cultural attaché

EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND2009 École des Gobelins, Paris, (school of visual communication) shooting video1994-1995 Sciences Po, Paris, preparation for the ENA’s and the Quai d’Orsay’s entrance exams

Langues O’, Paris, Hindu language department1990-1993 Sciences Po, Bordeaux, public service department

LANGUAGESFrench: mother tongueEnglish: fluentSpanish: conversational

THE PRODUCER /LES FILMS D’ICI

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Since 1984, Les Films d’Ici has been producing feature length documentaries, feature films, one hour documentaries and film collections. The catalogue contains over 700 films released in theatres, shown in festivals and broadcast on television stations worldwide.Les Films d'Ici has expanded over the last thirty years by staying faithful to writers and directors and true to the principle of unearthing and accompanying new talent in France and beyond.

FEATURE FILMS :

Orpheline de Arnaud des Pallières, avec Adèle Haenel, Adèle Exarchopoulos, Gemma Atherton (In production. Coproduction with Les Films Hatari / Distr : Le Pacte) L’Amour qu’il nous faut de Nathalie Marchak, avec Audrey Fleurot, Michael Nyqvist (Financing / Distr : Sophie Dulac) FinancingRicordi? de Valerio Mieli, (Financing, Major producer : Cattleya)Les Filles du temps de Valerio Mieli (Financing)Le Gang des Antillais de Jean-Claude Barny, avec Djedje Apali, Eriq Ebouaney, Edouard Montoute (en production / Distr : Happiness Distribution)Funan, le peuple nouveau de Denis Do (animation / en développement / Distr : Bac Films)Mister Wu de Patrick Zachmann (animation / en développement)La Révélation de Thierry Binisti, scénario de Michel Fessler (en développement / Distr : Pyramide Distribution)3000 Nuits de Maï Masri, avec Maisa Abdelhadi (en post-production)La Vallée de Ghassan Salhab, avec Carlos Chahine, Carole Abboud (en post-production)Michael Kohlhaas d’Arnaud des Pallières avec Mads Mikkelsen (2013 / Distr : Les Films du Losange / Sélection officielle compétition Cannes)Gare du Nord de Claire Simon, avec Nicole Garcia, Reda Kateb, François Damien (2013 / Distr : Sophie Dulac)Le Vertige des possibles de Vivianne Perelmuter (2014)L’Œil de l’astronome de Stan Neumann, avec Denis Lavant (2012 / Distr : Les Films du Paradoxe)Ab Irato de Dominique Boccarossa, avec Joël Lefrançois, Yann Goven, Agnès Belkadi (2012 / Distr : Art Cinefeel)Les Secrets de Raja Amari, avec Aicha Hafsia Herzi (2010 / Distr : Sophie Dulac / sélectionné à l'Orizzonti de Venise 2009)Après l'Océan d'Eliane de Latour (2009 / Distr : Shellac)Parc d’Arnaud des Pallières, avec Jean-Marc Barr, Sergi Lopez (2009 / Distr : Ad Vitam /sélectionné à la Mostra de Venise section Orizzonti 2008)Les Bureaux de Dieu de Claire Simon (2008 / Distr : Shellac / Quinzaine des Réalisateurs Cannes 2008)Belle toujours de Manoel De Oliveira, avec Michel Piccoli, Bulle Ogier (2007/ Ditr : Les Films du Paradoxe) Barakat ! de Djamila Sarhaoui avec Rachida Brachni (2006)Adieu d’Arnaud des Pallières (2003 / Distr : Sellac / Festival de Locarno)Bronx-Barbès d’Eliane de Latour (2000 / Distr : Rezo Films)Cités de la Plaine de Robert Kramer (2000 / Distr : Les Films du Paradoxe)

DOCUMENTARY THEATRICAL RELEASE :

Entre les Frontières de Avi Mograbi (en production / Distr : Potemkine)Past in the Present de Wang Bing (en production / Distr : Les Acacias)Par-delà Lampedusa de Gianfranco Rosi (en production / Arte France Cinéma)Senseless de Guy Davidi (en développement)

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On est vivant de Carmen Castillo (2014 / Distr : Happiness Distribution)Un amour de Richard Copans (2014 / Distr : Shellac)Eau Argentée de Ossama Mohammed et Wiam Simav Bedirxan (2014 / Distr : Potemkine / Sélection Officielle Festival de Cannes 2014) On a grèvé de Denis Gheerbrant (2014 / Distr : Zeugma Films)La Maison de la Radio de Nicolas Philibert (2013 / Distr : Les Films du Losange /Section Panorama Dokumente à la Berlinale)Dans un jardin je suis entré de Avi Mograbi (2013 / Distr : Epicentre Films / Section CineMAXXI au Festival de Rome)El Impenetrable de Daniele Incalcaterra et Fausta Quattrini (2014 / sélection officielle hors-compétition à la Mostra de Venise 2012)L’été de Giacomo de Alessandro Comodin (2012 / Distr : Niz ! / Grand Prix de Belfort 2011 - Léopard d'Or catégorie cinéastes du présent Locarno)The Look de Angelina Maccarone (2011 / Distr : MK2)Michel Petrucciani de Michael Radford (2012 / Distr : Happiness Distribution / sélection officielle hors-compétition Cannes 2011)Traduire de Nurith Aviv (2011 / Distr : Editions Montparnasse)Les Arrivants de Claudine Bories et Patrice Chagnard (2010 / Happiness Distribution)Nénette de Nicolas Philibert (2010 / Distr : Les Films du Losange / Première mondiale : 60ème Festival de Berlin)Katanga business de Thierry Michel (2009 / Distr : les Films du Paradoxe / en coproduction avec Les films de la passerelle)Z32 d’Avi Mograbi (2009 / Distr : Les Films du Losange / Section Orizzonti à la Mostra de Venise 2008)Valse avec Bachir d’Ari Folman (2008 / Distr : Le Pacte / César du meilleur Film Etranger 2008, sélection en Compétition Officielle à Cannes 2008, Golden Globe du meilleur film étranger 2008)Rue Santa Fe de Carmen Castillo (2007 / Distr : Ad Vitam / sélection officielle Un Certain Regard Cannes 2007)Retour en Normandie de Nicolas Philibert (2007 / Distr : Les Films du Losange / Sélection Officielle hors-compétition Festival de Cannes 2007)Lip, l’imagination au pouvoir de Christian Rouaud (2009 / Distr : Les Films du Paradoxe / Etoile de la SCAM 2009, Prix du Jury Festival Films Français Lisbonne) Congo river de Thierry Michel (2005 / Distr : Les Films du Paradoxe / en coproduction avec les films de la passerelle) Pour un seul de mes deux yeux d’Avi Mograbi (2005 / Distr : Les Films du Losange)Août, avant l'explosion d’Avi Mograbi (2003)Iran, sous le voile des apparences de Thierry Michel (2003 / Distr : Les Films du Paradoxe)Et la vie de Denis Gheerbrant (2002 / Distr : Documentaire sur Grand écran)Etre et avoir de Nicolas Philibert (2002 / Distr : Les Films du Losange / sélection Officielle hors-compétition Cannes 2002, César meilleur montage 2002, Prix Louis Delluc, Etoiles d’or du cinéma français, Prix du Cinéma Européen)Mobutu, roi du Zaïre de Thierry Michel (1999 / Distr : Les Films du Paradoxe)Ernesto Che Guevara, le journal de Bolivie de Richard Dindo (1997)Reprise d’Hervé Le Roux (1997 / Distr : Les Films du Paradoxe)La Moindre des choses de Nicolas Philibert (1996 / Distr : Les Films du Losange / Sélection Officielle Festival de Locarno 1996, sortie le 5 mars 1997)Coûte que Coûte de Claire Simon (1995 / Distr : Rezo Films)Point de départ de Robert Kramer (1994 / Distr : Les Films du Paradoxe)Récréations de Claire Simon (1993 / Distr : Les Films du Paradoxe)Le Pays des Sourds de Nicolas Philibert (1993 / Distr : Les Films du Losange / Grand Prix Festival Dei Popoli et Grand Prix du Festival De Belfort, Sélection Officielle Festival de Locarno 1992, 1993)La Ville Louvre de Nicolas Philibert (1990 / Distr : Les Films du Losange / Prix Europa Meilleur Documentaire Européen)

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Route One / USA de Robert Kramer (1989 / Distr : Les Films du Paradoxe)

DOCUMENTARIES FOR TELEVISION:

Roland Barthes de Thierry Thomas (52’ Arte) - en productionJoue ta vie de Frédéric Sojcher (50’, 2014, France 2) – en productionBorsalino City de Enrica Viola et Paola Rota (52’, 2014, Arte) – en productionFrançois Truffaut, l’insoumis de Alexandre Moix (52’, Arte Geie, Cine+, INA, MK2) Charles de Gaulle – Naissance d’un chef de Jacques Dubuisson (52’, 2014, France 3) Les Fantômes de l’Histoire de Jean-Marc Descamps (52’, 2014, France 3)Costello, l’autre Elvis de Mark Kidel (60’, 2013, Les Films d’Ici, Arte, BBC, Media)Le fil de la vie de Dominique Gros (90’, 2013, Arte)Joséphine, le droit à la beauté de Djana Schmidt (52’, 2013, France 3 Paris Ile-de-France)Fabienne Verdier, Peindre l’instant de Mark Kidel (52’, 2013, France 5)Ministre ou rien de Jean-Michel Djian (71’, 2013, France 3, Public Sénat, TV5 Monde)Annonces de Nurith Aviv (60’, 2013, Arte)Le fil de la vie de Dominique Gros (90’, 2013, Arte)Home sweet Home de Enrica Colusso (90’, Arte, 2012) Raymond Aubrac, Reconstruire de Pascal Convert et Fabien Beziat (52’, 2012, France 5)Dans les bottes de Clint de Frédéric Laffont (52’, 2012, France 5)Bombard, le naufragé volontaire de Didier Nion (52’, 2012, France 5)La main tendue, les arts de l’Islam au Louvre de Richard Copans (52’, 2012, Musée du Louvre, Arte)Super fungi de Thomas Sipp (90’, 2012, Arte)Les Conti de Jérôme Palteau (52’, 2012, France 3)Damas, au péril du souvenir de Marie Seurat (62’, 2012, Arte)Le Khmer rouge et le non-violent de Bernard Mangiante (90’, 2011, France 5)150 ans D’Histoire de l’Italie de Enrico Cerasuolo (90’, 2011, Arte)Casanova, histoire de ma vie de Hopi Lebel (52’, 2011, France 5)Play Liszt, un virtuose visionnaire de Judit Kele (52’, 2011, Arte)Edouard Manet, une inquiétante étrangeté de Hopi Lebel (52’, 2011, France 5)François Mitterrand, à bout portant, 1993-1996 de Jean-Michel Djian (52’, 2011, France 2, Public Sénat)Hip hop, le monde est à vous de Joshua Atesh Litle (85’, 2010, Arte, YLE)Berlin 1885, le partage de l’Afrique de Joël Calmettes (90’, Arte, 2010)El Sicario, room 164 de Gianfranco Rosi (80’, Arte, 2010)Nous étions communistes de Maher Abi Samra (85’, 2010)Aurélie Dupont, l'espace d'un instant de Cédric Klapisch (52’, 2009, France 3)Gauguin à Tahiti et aux Marquises de Richard Dindo (52’-66’, 2009)De Gaulle la fin d’un règne de Jean-Michel Djian (52’, 2009, Public Sénat)Israel Galvan L’Accent andalou de Maria Reggiani (52’, 2009, Arte)

DOCUDRAMA:

14, des armes et des mots (8 x 52’) de Jan Peter une coproduction franco-allemande (Looks Films, Les Films d'Ici, Arte France, SWR, NDR, WDR, CNC, Media, et de nombreux diffuseurs) d'un budget de 5 millions d'euros.

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Guillaume Le Conquérant, de Frédéric Compain (80’, 2013, ARTE, NRK)Louis XVI, l’homme qui ne voulait pas être roi de Thierry Binisti (90’, 2011, France 2)Louis XV, le soleil noir de Thierry Binisti (90’, 2009, France 2, France 5)Versailles, le rêve d’un roi de Thierry Binisti (2x45’, 2007, NHK, NDR, YLE, RTBF, SVT, SBS, Télé Québec, DR, NRK, ERT, TSR, Planète)

COLLECTIONS, DOCUMENTARIES SERIES AND MAGAZINES:

Collection « L’Europe des écrivains » .L’Angleterre de Martin Amis de Mark Kidel (55’, 2013, Arte, BBC).L’Espagne de Juan Goytisolo, Manuel Rivas de Carmen Castillo (56’, 2013, Arte).Le Portugal de Mário de Carvalho, Lidia Jorge, Gonçalo M. Tavares et Mia Couto de Ines de Medeiros (en production).La Roumanie de Norman Manea, Gabriela Adamesteanu, Mircea Cartarescu, Florin Lazarescu de Alexandru Solomon (en production)Collection « Déchiffrage » Revue documentaire audiovisuelle économique trimestrielle réalisée par Jacques Goldstein et Anne Kunvari (Arte et Alternatives Economiques).L’euro (en production).Les impôts, le pris de la démocratie ? (76’, 2014).Mondialisation, fin du début ou début de la fin ? (77’, 2014).Chômage, l’éternel retour ? (76’, 2014).La croissance à tout prix ? (79’, 2013)Collection « Les cathédrales de la culture » Une collection de 6x26’ en 3D initiée par Wim Wenders et réalisée par Michael Glawogger, Michael Madsen, Robert Redford, Margareth Olin, Karim Ainouz et Wim Wenders. Une production Neue Road Movies, Final Cut for Real, Lotus Film, Mer Film, Les Films d’Ici 2, Sundance Productions / RadicalMedia, WOWOW, RBB/Arte, Arte, DR, NRK..Le Centre Pompidou de Karim Aïnouz (26’ en 3D, 2014, Arte) Collection L’usage du monde (6 x 52’, Arte, 2008) : .Les Hommes de la foret 21 de Julien Samani (2007) .Lumière du Nord de Sergei Loznitsa (2008).La Maison vide de Stéphane Breton (2008).L’Argent du charbon de Wang Bing (2009) .La montée au ciel de Stéphane Breton (2010) .Il nous faut du bonheur de Alexandre Sokourov et Alexei Jankowski (2010)Architectures (58 x 26’, Arte, depuis 1994)Collection Grands rôles (6 x 26’, Arte, 2008)Le magazine de l’ailleurs (30 x 50’, Voyage, 2007) Visages d’Europe (20 x 26’ Arte, 2007/2006) Les animaux ont une histoire (5 x43’ et 5 x 52’, Arte, 2006/2005)

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