The final film in this year’s US Documentary Competition: WE’RE NOT BROKE, Karin Hayes and Victoria Bruce’s timely exploration of economic inequities and corporate tax loopholes.
Sundance Program Description:
With the United States in the grip of the worst economic recession since the Great Depression and an unprecedented budget deficit, the conclusion that our country is broke seems unquestionable. At least that’s what politicians and pundits want ordinary citizens to believe as they call for massive spending cuts.
Karin Hayes and Victoria Bruce’s searing exposé reveals that, strangely absent from this rhetoric, is the infuriating fact that multibillion-dollar corporations that are based in the US, that make money from American consumers, and that often even receive lucrative contracts from the government, pay nothing in U.S. income taxes. By exploiting tax-law loopholes and spending millions on lobbyists to pressure politicians to protect their interests, corporations pocket billions while the less-connected middle class disappears, and the poor get poorer.
WE’RE NOT BROKE explores how the government has allowed this inequality to develop and the growing wave of discontent that it has fostered. Presaging the larger wave of protests that have arisen in recent months with the international Occupy movement, the film follows a number of activists who have had enough and are demanding that corporations finally pay their fair share.
Some Background:
Hayes and Bruce have been to Park City before – their first collaboration, THE KIDNAPPING OF INGRID BETANCOURT, premiered at Slamdance, where it picked up the Audience Award for Best Feature Documentary. In addition, Hayes served as associate producer for husband Paul Rachman’s AMERICAN HARDCORE, which premiered at Sundance in 2006. Reversing roles, Rachman takes on associate producer duties for this film.
Why You Should Watch:
Hayes and Bruce do a great job of tackling a big issue in a way that should make logical sense to most viewers, and help to contextualize the same concerns that the Occupy movement have been addressing. What’s more, as a call to action, the doc should infuriate its viewers, which could lead to needed real world reform.
More Info:
Check out the film’s website and Facebook page. Hayes and Bruce discusses their doc in a “Meet the Artists” interview for Sundance here, and speak to Indiewire here. For screening dates and times at Sundance, click the link in the first paragraph.
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