We watched the first of three screenings of I.O.U.S.A on Friday morning. This was actually an earlier version which was presented at Sundance before. After the filmmakers received feedback they edited the film and updated it with recent numbers. This more recent version was presented in the other two screenings. Unfortunately we couldn’t watch this film more than once this weekend, but I definitely plan to watch it on DVD when available.
I.O.U.S.A is another in a series of documentaries to serve as a mirror to our society. This film visualizes the growing financial problems of the country that threaten to ruin all prospects of future generations. It will hopefully help the public to make more educated decisions about the leaders of tomorrow. Both the environmental issues presented in An Inconvenient Truth and the debt issues in I.O.U.S.A are not really new and not very surprising. These problems have been known for years already, but both these documentaries bring the issues to the point and back into the light with recent numbers, in a very comprehensible, compact, clear and rational way.
I.O.U.S.A was a success in many regards. The charts and diagrams were very successful in illustrating the magnitude of the problem and its historical course. You also learned about where the money came and comes from, the historical events and which effect they had on the debt of the country. It’s an excellent documentary and I look forward to the final cut of it.
All these documentaries make me wonder if times can really change for the better, or if it is already too late. Will they create nothing but a temporary wave of excitement, a fad that will soon pass and be forgotten? Or will people change and be more critical about their leaders? Will a film like An Inconvenient Truth help to reverse the ongoing damages to the environment? Will I.O.U.S.A help to reduce the debts? Will documentaries of this kind reach the right people or just preach to the choir?
Who knows… but I think these documentaries will reach a few people and keep the issues alive in the public consciousness and discussions. They give these problems a voice in the popular media, which would otherwise ignore them completely. Probably one of the essential documentaries of our times. [imdb]
What if someone had warned us about Katrina? Oh, wait, we had specific warnings, days in advance — but no leadership. In the midst of upheaval in our traditional news sources, we’ve had powerful warnings from filmmakers on a variety of topics: global warming (An Inconvenient Truth), chemicals in our daily life (Blue Vinyl), and the relationship of mass food production to the American obesity epidemic (Super Size Me), to name just a few.
National debt is yet another issue we have some notion about, but there’s very little mainstream news giving us details, much less guidance — and there’s certainly no leadership. Referencing the books Financial Reckoning Day and Empire of Debt by Bill Bonner and Addison Wiggin, director Patrick Creadon (Wordplay) entertainingly gives us a tour of the financial black hole we’ve dug for ourselves. With U.S. Comptroller David Walker as our docent, the film artfully describes how the debt has spiraled out of control, and the ever-mounting consequences for both ourselves and the next generations.
In a lively, remarkably funny style, Creadon shows us the details behind the horrifying level of debt we’ve accumulated — and the short-sighted mindsets that made it possible. Facts and concepts that are usually shrouded in mystery are made clear. The film is defiantly nonpartisan, and features interviews with a fascinating array of familiar and unknown iconoclasts. This is a film that treats audiences as adults as it gives us clear answers and new insights — and you’ll be appropriately indignant that you hadn’t heard the story before. (Jed Dietz) (from the filmfest-guide)
