Page - 68 - in Siting Futurity - The “Feel Good” Tactical Radicalism of Contemporary Culture in and around Vienna

68 siting futurity her customers are suddenly able to pay off, and not just down, their debts. Her goons first attempt intimidation, leading to an- other burial, that of Sammy and his friends’ cat. It is the collec- tive neighborhood response that is of interest. When Frau Jahn’s goons come to inflict on Sammy and his trusty sidekick, Ticket, the same type of treatment that had been inflicted on the poor cat, the goons prove no match for the locals, who appear like a cavalry in a local show of force. The film ends with Valerie back in Germany, detailing to her class the benefits of local alterna- tive currencies and announcing that she will be returning to Vienna to help run Planet Ottakring, an establishment special- izing in “Coffee and Credit,” as is advertised in English on the sign above the door. Not only does Riebl’s film depict how a small-scale alternative currency works in practice, but the press kit that accompanied the film and was referenced in reviews also explicitly mentions the historical and contemporary models on which the “Kommu- nisten” in his film are based. Indeed, the press-kit offers a verita- ble history lesson in the workings of alternative currencies. So as not to create the impression that they are a thing of the past, Rie- bl mentions the Sardinian Sardex. As he details, “[d]ie Sardinier haben den ‘Sardex’ erfunden, eine Internetwährung, die genau auf dem gleichen Prinzip basiert. Kredite waren viel zu teuer, also haben sie sich eine Währung erfunden, mit der sie sich ihre Leistungen bezahlen” [“The Sardinians invented the ‘Sardex,’ an internet currency based on exactly the same principle. Loans were too expensive, so they came up with a currency with which they could pay for their activities”] (“Presseheft” 2015). Interest- ingly, far from being economists, these Sardinians were a small group of “[a]rts and humanities graduates with little financial experience” (Posnett 2015) but superior research skills. By 2009 the core team of Gabriele Littera, Piero Sanna, Carlo Mancuso, Giuseppe Littera, and Franco Contu had become convinced that, as Giuseppe Littera states, something “had to be done” as no existing institution was ready to tackle the economic depression that was on its way.