Politicians and the media like to talk about the relationship between Wall Street and Main Street, but investigative journalist Leslie Cockburns debut feature gets to the guts of the matter, visiti...
Politicians and the media like to talk about the relationship between Wall Street and Main Street, but investigative journalist Leslie Cockburns debut feature gets to the guts of the matter, visiting defectors from Bear Stearns and Standard & Poors and other high-level players in the subprime mortgage gamble (not to mention Bloomberg's Mark Pittman, America's finest financial reporter) and, on the flipside, visiting the working-class Americans who were the unwitting chips on the table. Unique in coverage of the financial fiasco that is ruining us all, American Casino tracks the fate of a subprime borrower enmeshed in a Goldman-Sachs mortgage bond, catches Alan Greenspan in his most abject moment of self justification, and takes to the post-apocalyptic world of California's Riverside County, where millions of disease-bearing mosquitoes are breeding in the stagnant swimming pools of the foreclosed American dream. All this musically underscored by the irony and pathos of Moby, the caustic humor of Herbie Hancock, Bruce Springsteen's haunting evocation of the last great depression, as well as astonishing hip hop tracks from the streets of Baltimore.
Official selection Tribeca Film Fetival 2009
For more information visit www.americancasinothemovie.com
It is rare that a documentary director has the privilege to shoot a film that, while in production, becomes the greatest story of our time. The worst case scenario of January 2008, when we began work on American Casino, turned into reality in the year that followed. We were able to follow our characters through Wall Streets collapse, foreclosure, bankruptcy, homelessness. We watched whole neighborhoods ravaged by the subprime meltdown. I have spent much of my career filming in war zones and post apocalyptic societies — Somalia, Iraq, Afghanistan. But I never expected such a disaster at home. To be there, with a camera, while it was happening, telling the story, was certainly the highlight of my career.
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I put my real estate license on hold because I saw the current trend coming. The irresponsible lending, and the way home buyers trust one single stranger --a lender-with years worth of their future earning power. I always urged clients get three lenders' bids before choosing a loan. ADVICE RARELY TAKEN. Not Just Targeting Minorities. Anyone who could fog a mirror and sign a loan doc. Too much belief in television life. Too much belief that the government protects you. Protect yourself.
THis will probably be a great informational doc., but keep in mind...Greenspan and his friends are not stupid, there hasn't been a free market in years, AND he and those who have profited from this economic disaster should be held accountable! They are not stupid/ this was not just a mistake, this is ROBBERY! Do not give these guys the benefit of the doubt that this was an accident.
Things sure did change. When I applied for a mortgage in 1994 things were so tight and strict they put me through absolute hell to get my mortgage....they did everything short of a blood test on me & my wife......and.....that was with 20% down, good credit, zero debt and money in the bank...and....steady jobs we had in excess of ten years.....in fact I had been with my company for "20 years".
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Don't wait to get raped when one of our "Too Big to Fail" banks can bend you over that stump NOW.
I always urged clients get three lenders' bids before choosing a loan. ADVICE RARELY TAKEN. Not Just Targeting Minorities. Anyone who could fog a mirror and sign a loan doc. Too much belief in television life. Too much belief that the government protects you. Protect yourself.