A special FREE screening of by international award-winning documentary that examines the causes and aftermath of the greatest financial crisis since the Wall Street Crash of 1929. The screening will be followed by a special Q&A with Louis Hyman, one of the experts interviewed extensively for the film. Prior to The Flaw, we will be screening Matthew Modine's short film, Jesus Was a Commie, and Mr. Modine will be present for a Q and A following the screening as well.
Originally from Baltimore, Louis Hyman studied at Columbia and received his Ph.D. in history from Harvard. He is the author of "Debtor Nation: The History of America in Red Ink" and the forthcoming "Borrow: The American Way of Debt." Currently he teaches history at the ILR school (School of Industrial and Labor Relations) of Cornell University.
About Films For the Occupation:
Rooftop Films, in partnership with several of New York City’s finest film venues, will bring a series of four film programs to audiences from December 13-16. As the Occupy encampments are being dismantled across the country and as mainstream media and politics threaten to go on with business as usual, having conversations that question our economic and political system is all the more important. “Films for the Occupation” intends to showcase film and multimedia works that provoke or continue conversations that challenge old ways of thinking and encourage new ones. Curated by Rooftop Films and Bryce Renninger.
The Flaw (David Sington | UK/USA | 78 min.)
In October 2008 a humbled Alan Greenspan admitted to the US Congress that he had been mistaken to put so much faith in the self-correcting power of free markets and that he had failed to anticipate the self-destructive nature of wanton mortgage lending and the housing and credit bubble it generated. Taking for its title Greenspan's description that he'd found a flaw in his model of how the world worked, THE FLAW attempts to explain the underlying causes of the crisis in more depth than any documentary to date.
Made by international award-winning documentary maker David Sington, THE FLAW tells the story of the credit bubble that caused the financial crash. Through interviews with some of the world's leading economists, including housing expert Robert Shiller, Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz, and economic historian Louis Hyman, as well as Wall Street insiders and victims of the crash including Ed Andrews - a former economics correspondent for The New York Times who found himself facing foreclosure - and Andrew Luan, once a bond trader at Deutsche Bank now running his own Wall Street tour guide business, the film presents an original and compelling account of the toxic combination of forces that nearly destroyed the world economy.
The film shows how excessive income inequality in society leads to economic instability. At a time when economic theory and public policy is being re-examined this film reminds us that without addressing the root causes of the crisis the system may collapse again and next time it may not be possible for governments to rescue it.
Jesus Was a Commie (Matthew Modine, Terence Ziegler | New York, NY | 15 min.)
Jesus Was a Commie elegantly and intelligently captures an audience desperate to understand what is happening across our country. Using unambiguous language that openly presents two swamplands America is presently bogged down in: environmental degradation and partisanship. Actor Matthew Modine's words are as plain and simple as a parable from his film's title character. Jesus was a Commie is an avant-garde dialectical conversation about the world and the prominent issues of modern society. It recently won the Founders Prize for Best Short Film at Michael Moore's Traverse City Film Festival and is currently playing festivals worldwide. For more information, visit www.jesuswasacommiefilm.com.
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