Filmmaker, journalist, and blogger Danny Schechter will visit Ithaca College on Tuesday, April 24 to screen and discuss his newest film, “In Debt We Trust: American before the Bubble Bursts.” The free event will begin at 7:30 p.m. in Park Hall Auditorium.
“Big banks, credit card companies and fly-by-night lenders have buried many unsuspecting Americans in debt by using deceptive interest rates that quickly skyrocket, big late fees, and other tricks,” Schechter said. “Half of us don’t pay off our credit cards each month, and the average household owes $30,000 in consumer debt.”
According to Schechter’s 88-minute documentary, debt is strangling the lives of tens of millions of Americans and consolidating power into fewer and fewer hands by a credit and loan complex not unlike the military-industrial complex. This “financialization” of America is producing a kind of “modern serfdom,” Schechter said, and is widening the gap between the haves and have-nots.
“In Debt We Trust” is being distributed to theaters and communities as part of a new national campaign, Americans for Debt Relief Now. The campaign aims to help Americans win freedom from the burden of overwhelming debt.
His other films include “WMD: Weapons of Mass Deception” (2004), “Nkosi: A Voice of Africa’s AIDS Orphans” (2001) narrated by Danny Glover; “A Hero for All: Nelson Mandela’s Farewell” (l999) and “Beyond Life: Timothy Leary Lives” (1997).
https://www.ithaca.edu/intercom/article.php/20070412094248412