Festival Center
1640 Columbia Road, NW Washington D.C., DC 20009
Apr 29, 2011
7:00 PM - 9:00 PM (GMT-5)
Host:
The Institute for Policy Studies' Inequality and the Common Good project, Faith & Money Network, Code Pink, Center for Economic Policy Research, Empower DC and Common Security DC
From the makers of Beyond Elections, this new feature-length documentary takes viewers across the country amidst the economic collapse, to the grassroots solutions in the hands of the people. On September 15, 2008, the United States fell into the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. The same day filmmakers Sílvia Leindecker and Michael Fox set out on a trip around the country to ask the "American" people what they had to say about it. In 2010, they went back to see how things had changed. While financial forecasters say the recession is over, Leindecker's and Fox’s Crossing the American Crises: From Collapse to Action shows that the reality is otherwise.
The featured stories reveal desperation, indignation, hope, dreams and a disastrous economic breakdown; chaos generated by a system of inequality. The film also shows that the financial meltdown is just one of several human rights crises now shaking the United States — in housing, education, health care, etc. and that the solutions to "Crossing the American Crises" are in the hands of the people.
The Institute for Policy Studies' Inequality and the Common Good project, Faith & Money Network, Code Pink, Center for Economic Policy Research, Empower DC and Common Security DC co-sponsored the D.C. premier screening of this new film. An interactive panel discussion followed the film and included the filmmakers, Silvia, Michael, and John Schmitt, senior economist with CEPR (who appears in the film).
