2011 Sundance Docs in Focus: THE FLAW

The second half of this spotlight on the World Cinema Documentary Competition begins with David Sington’s THE FLAW, from the UK, which offers a comprehensive analysis of the US financial crisis.

Sundance Program Description:

THE FLAW makes one thing clear from the outset—there was nothing simple about the U.S. financial collapse of 2007. Within minutes, experts had identified plenty of culprits: market failure, a credit culture, a wage crisis, a debt crisis, and upward redistribution of income. That’s economic shorthand for fasten your seatbelt.

David Sington’s rigorously constructed analysis of the meltdown, told entirely by economists, brokers, bankers, and borrowers, plays like a financial whodunit. Moving past the usual suspects, it creates a vivid historical context through which to view twentieth-century American capitalism.

Bolstered by graphics and animation (ironically plucked from postwar cartoons extolling free markets) the film renders complex ideas digestible and argues that capitalism has changed in the last 30 years—and not for the better. Once sold on consumer power through borrowing and a higher standard of living, we realize we bought into a lie. THE FLAW has burst the bubble.

Some Background:
Director Sington and his Associate Producer Sarah Kinsella are no strangers to Sundance – their previous film, IN THE SHADOW OF THE MOON, won the Audience Award for World Cinema Documentary in 2007.

Why You Should Watch:
THE FLAW presents an extremely complicated topic in a remarkably clear and concise manner, while at the same time somehow offering thought-provoking history of and commentary on a much larger issue – namely the system of capitalism itself.

Screening Info:
For screening dates and times at Sundance, click the link in the first paragraph above. The film also has a website with a mailing list sign up to keep interested audiences aware of upcoming screenings and other developments.