(2 Oct 2012)
27 September, 2012
1. Wide pan of Lisbon city and mural of the city made with tiles below
2. Close up of mural
24 September, 2012
3. Tilt down front of building where Teresa Dourado lives, paying a controlled rent
4. Mid of Dourado opening the door
5. Mid of Dourado walking and indicating a picture of her painted by her husband
6. Close up of picture
7. Dourado speaking
8. SOUNDBITE (Portuguese) Teresa Dourado, rent-controlled tenant in Lisbon:
(Question: Could you pay a little bit more?)
“No, no, I can’t. I’m already having trouble paying 100 euros.”
20 September, 2012
9. Mid shot of landlord and building owner Jose Gago da Gra�a looking a folder containing contracts
10. Mid document reading “Notary Public. Lisbon”
11. Close rent deed reading “August 1962. Escudos 2,750” (this is the former Portuguese currency, now equivalent to about 13 euros)
12. SOUNDBITE (Portuguese) Joao Gago da Gra�a, Lisbon landlord and building owner:
“In this building I still have a lady paying about 190 euros (under a 1962 rental contract) who is occupying a 160 square metre apartment, and I recently rented a similar apartment for 1,600 euros.”
27 September, 2012
13. Close up of rooftop, old houses behind
14. Mid delapidated house in an alley in downtown Lisbon
15. Close up of window
16. Mid of sign reading (Portuguese) Lisbon Tenants’ Association
17. SOUNDBITE (Portuguese) Romao Lavadinho, president of the Lisbon Tenants’ Association:
“A person cannot live in the street, without a roof, without a house, but from our point of view that is what is going to happen on a large scale. We think that more than 100,000 families out of 250,000 (who are renting under the old contracts) will be in a very difficult and complicated situation.”
19 September, 2012
18. Tilt down from hotel to downtown Lisbon Augusta street, in tourist area of Lisbon
19. Mid of Susana Paiva, owner of the building housing the hotel, talking
20. SOUNDBITE (Portuguese) Susana Paiva, owner of building where hotel is housed:
“The goal of society is profit, so in my view low rents for businesses are pernicious for the dynamism of the economy in the 21st century, because people in charge of the companies don’t need to modernise, or to find new markets and ways of becoming more competitive.”
28 September, 2012
21. Man looking at ads in estate agency window
22. Close up of posters in window with “For Rent” ads
24 September 2012
23. Various of Teresa Dourado in her kitchen
24. SOUNDBITE (Portuguese) Teresa Dourado, rent-controlled tenant in Lisbon:
“They’re not getting me out of here. If I am forced out of my home, I’ll go through the window, not the door.”
27 September, 2012
25. Various of buildings
26. Close up of wall with tiles missing, man seated in the background
27. Mid of man sitting outside house smoking
STORYLINE:
The peaceful retirement of Teresa Dourado is about to be shattered.
The 77-year-old widow raised two children with her husband in their fourth-floor apartment behind Lisbon’s Campo Pequeno bull-ring.
It has been the family home since 1966.
Living alone there now among black-and-white photographs of her children and with her husband’s framed paintings, she pays a controlled rent of 100 euros (128 US dollars) a month.
That just about allows her to get by on her monthly pension of 414 euros (535 US dollars).
But Portugal is scrapping its long-standing rent controls in one of the government’s most radical economic and social reforms since the ailing country needed a 78 billion euros bailout last year.
Dourado says she won’t be able to afford the increase in her rent.
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