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The Dallas AFI film festival this year is screening a documentary by Patrick Creadon, entitled I.O.U.S.A.  Fresh off of his work on the critically and financially successful documentary Wordplay, he has created a film documenting America’s obsession with debt, both publicly and privately, and its affect on the security of our country.  With the words “recession”, “mortgage bailout”, “economic tailspin”, and “credit crunch” on the cover of every newspaper in the country, I.O.U.S.A helps to put those words into context and to give us a broader understanding of what is really happening to our economy.  With the timeliness of the film in mind, I had a chance to ask the director Patrick Creadon a few questions about his life and the making of the film.

Q: How did you get your start as a documentary filmmaker?

A: When I graduated from college I was considering going to law school.  A very good friend of mine (one of my professors from Notre Dame) urged me to take a year off and try to chase a “dream job” for a year.  If that didn’t pay off law school would still be waiting for me the following fall.  That summer I happened to catch a documentary show called “The 90’s” on my local PBS affiliate WTTW Chicago.  Within weeks I landed a job as an intern at the show and have been making documentaries ever since.

Q: You worked with Christine O’Malley on both this and your last documentary, how did you get to work with her?

A: Christine and I do just about everything together, including raise a family.  We’ve been married since 2000 and now have three beautiful daughters.  Fortunately, our talents compliment each other very well—I shoot and direct while she produces.  It’s a very good fit for us, and it’s been a real joy being able to work together and share this journey.  Due to the demands of making documentary films, if we didn’t work together I’m not sure we’d ever see each other!

Q: After the more lighthearted “Wordplay”, why did you get involved in such a serious subject?

A: “I.O.U.S.A.” proved to be a perfect follow up film to “WORDPLAY”.  We wanted to make another film after the success of “WORDPLAY” but wanted also to do something very different.  When we began the film in the fall of 2006 (just as “WORDPLAY” was wrapping up) a movie about economics seemed very dry and boring to some, but the story intrigued us.  18 months later (spring of 2008) the state of the American economy has become biggest news story in the world, and has taken center stage in the presidential campaign.  We feel honored to be telling this story right now and hope that the story told in “I.O.U.S.A.” will become a part of the national dialogue leading up to the election in November.

Q: How long have you been working on I.O.U.S.A? 

A: 18 months.

Q: Putting together a documentary like this, how do you decide who to interview?

A: I wanted to tell this story from the inside, so to speak.  The American economy and the federal government of the United States are incredibly large topics.  They are somewhat daunting subjects, to say the least.  But we figured if we found people who have had a front row seat to these stories we could weave together an informative and compelling portrait of where we’ve been economically speaking, where we are today, and where all this is heading in the future.  Thanks to the incredible access we were granted—including interviews with former Treasury Secretaries Robert Rubin and Paul O’Neill, former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, former Clinton Economic Advisor Alice Rivlin, and investor Warren Buffett (to name a few)—we were able to demystify some of the complexities of macroeconomics and get to the root of the major problems now facing our government and our economy.

Q: Was it difficult get access to some of the people you interviewed? 

A: Ironically, the success of “WORDPLAY” was instrumental in landing several of our interviews.  For example, former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin had passed on granting us an interview but then mentioned in passing to his wife that the filmmakers who made “WORDPLAY” had requested an interview.  She had seen our previous film and encouraged him to do the interview, adding that we had done a great job bringing that story to life and that perhaps we could do the same with this topic.  Another key factor was that Addison Wiggin and Bill Bonner, the authors of the book “Empire of Debt” (which our film is loosely based on) are both New York Times best-selling authors and that their involvement guaranteed a high level of sophistication and accuracy.

Q: Most people cannot imagine an 8.7-9.22 trillion dollar debt.  Was it difficult trying to figure out how to put such a large number in the minds of the average viewer?

A: Yes.  Allowing the viewer to get their heads wrapped around those kinds of numbers was challenging.  Thanks to the stars of the film—United States Comptroller General David Walker and Concord Coalition Executive Director Robert Bixby—the numbers come to life and the audience walks away feeling they have a much clearer understanding of the issue.  Both David and Robert also point out that in the final analysis this is not a “numbers” issue, but rather a “moral” issue.  We as a nation are living entirely beyond our means and are expecting our children and grandchildren to pay for it, which is just plain selfish.  You can defend all sorts of behavior I suppose, but selfishness is definitely not on that list.

Q: In an election year, what are your thoughts on the fact that the deficit seems to be almost a non issue, or do you think that it is being adequately discussed by the Presidential candidates?

A: As we were told while making the film, “don’t expect the candidates to confront this issue” on the campaign trail.  Put simply, financial discipline has never been a good platform for a candidate running for office.  Why?  Because it involves either raising some taxes or cutting some spending (or both), and very few candidates want to talk about those things when they are trying to win votes.  What we hope is that by getting this issue on people’s minds during the campaign, we can send a clear signal to the winners of the elections this fall that we are ready to make sacrifices in order to head off a total financial nightmare ahead.  Remember, Ross Perot didn’t win the 1992 presidential election, but he shined a very bright light on the issue of financial discipline and helped pave the way for the dramatic improvements that were made during the Clinton administration.  It’s important to remember also that Clinton’s administration worked closely with a Republican-led Congress and Newt Gingrich to achieve the economic turnaround of the 90’s.  Hopefully the next President—no matter who he or she is—will reach across party lines and work together to achieve results for the good of the nation and our economy.  Almost certainly one party will not be able to achieve this alone.

Q: Your film seems to suggest that it is just not a “sexy” enough issue to be a major issue; do you think that will change in the next few months?

A: Unfortunately economics is THE issue facing the country today.  Sexy or not, the entire country is watching this story and trying to educate themselves as quickly as possible.  “I.O.U.S.A.” is a great place for a general audience to start.

Q: From watching the film it seems that those that have the power to do something either have no real answer, are oblivious to the problem, or are fully aware but don’t care.  Was that the impression you came away with?

A: Most—if not all—elected officials in Washington are aware of how bad this situation is and know that it needs to be addressed immediately.  The reason it hasn’t been is that our political parties are so deeply divided at the moment, in large part because of the war in Iraq.  Although the war itself is not the primary reason we are in such dire financial straits, the divisiveness created by the war is to be blamed for us not moving forward on fixing our nation’s financial health.

Q: It seems that there are numerous reasons for our current debt, did the people you speak to seem to have a consensus on the single biggest problem?

A: The national debt is simply an accumulation of all the previous annual budget surpluses and budget deficits leading back to the beginning of the federal government in 1789.  Historically our financial health has been threatened by wars and the Great Depression of the 1930’s.  What we are facing today is an economic tsunami that is being caused by neither of these factors.  The largest threat to the future of America—according to David Walker, the federal government’s top auditor and the ultimate “financial insider”—is the rising costs of our nation’s entitlement programs and our refusal to pay for these programs with adequate tax revenues.  As the old saying goes, “The good news is that we’re all going to live a lot longer.  The bad news is that someone has to pay for it.” As a nation, we simply haven’t figured out who’s going to pay for this and how.  On the surface it sounds like a staggeringly boring topic.  In reality, this simple question lies at the heart of every political debate in Washington.

Q: What was the most important thing you learned when putting together this documentary?

A: I’ve learned a lot of things making this film.  Most importantly I’ve come to accept the fact that as ugly and unpopular as the war in Iraq is, it has very little to do with the financial mess that we are now in.  This is an extremely unpopular assertion, but it’s the sad truth.  Even if you consider that the true cost of the war in Iraq may be closer to 2 or 3 Trillion dollars when all is said and done (as many including Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz argue), this number pales in comparison to the 50 Trillion dollar hole that we are in today.  That number represents all of our nation’s current debt and the unfunded liabilities—or “promises”—we’ve made through our entitlement programs.

Q: Has this film made you more politically motivated?

A: Without a doubt.

Q: Other than general audiences, are there specific people you hope has a chance to see this film?

A: I hope high school and college kids see the film.  They literally are the ones who are going to be paying for all of this.  The sooner they learn about this the sooner we are going to see change.

Q: What would you say was the general consensus (if any) of the people you spoke to on how to reverse the current tend in the increasing deficit?

A: The solutions to this mess that we are in now are painfully simple:  a balanced budget by the federal government, increased savings by individuals, entitlement reform, tax policy reform, and a monetary policy (created by the federal reserve) that keeps unemployment low while at the same time avoids inflation.  Sounds simple, right?  I can assure you that it isn’t.

Simply put, America is suffering from an “easy credit” hangover, and the day of financial reckoning is now upon us.  The sooner we accept that we have a problem and take steps to fix it, the quicker we’ll get through it.  The solutions are out there; unfortunately, the political will and true leadership isn’t.

I.O.U.S.A.

Target 10 Documentary Feature Competition
(USA, 2007, 85 mins)
HDCam

Directed By: Patrick Creadon
Screenwriters: Patrick Creadon, Christine O’Malley, Addison Wiggin
Producers: Sarah Gibson, Christine O’Malley
Executive Producers: Jon Carnes, Addison Wiggin
Editor: Douglas Blush

From the director/producer team that brought us Wordplay comes this incredibly timely, smart examination of what just might be the single biggest crisis facing the U.S. today: our rapidly growing national debt and its very real consequences on the American people.

Political allegiances fly out the window as the very simple math of America’s financial problems, spanning and increasing over our nation’s history, are outlined in simple and undeniable clarity. Director Patrick Creadon deftly blends interviews with ordinary citizens, knowledgeable Beltway officials, and the cross-country speaking tour of the U.S. Comptroller General David Walker to paint a stark picture of our fiscal reality.

The immediacy and newsworthiness of this film and topic could not be more perfect. Meant to be a wake up call, I.O.U.S.A. does much more as it seeks to find broad, nonpartisan ways to right the ship that politicians from both sides of the aisle have steered so drastically off course.

Screening Times:

Wednesday, April 2nd 4:00pm
Magnolia 3

Saturday, April 5th 9:15pm
Magnolia 4

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