Hard Times — Lost On Long Island

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It's been nearly four years since the world blew up in the fall of 2008. We would expect it to take nearly that long for independent filmmakers to finance, produce, shoot, edit and release documentaries about the aftermath of the crisis. A new one called Hard Times: Lost On Long Island has been getting some press, and deservedly so. I thought I would post the trailer and an interview with director Marc Levin. The film is currently airing on HBO. Here's part of the synopsis from the HBO website linked in above.

Starting in summer 2010, when many hoped an era of recovery would begin, and continuing through the holiday season six months later, Hard Times: Lost On Long Island spotlights the challenges facing highly skilled, well-educated Long Islanders who lost their jobs. Public relations professional Anne Strauss notes, "Being unemployed for two years is not just a financial loss. It's an emotional loss. It's a loss of friendships. People disappear. You can't socialize. It changes every facet of your life."

When both people in a couple suffer economic hardships, it can cause considerable strain on their relationship, as Heather and David Hartstein testify. "Things between Heather and I became really difficult," admits David. "I didn't know how to handle and deal and feel emotion."

Compounding their crisis, the bank rejected their application for a loan modification on the same day their son tested positive for Down Syndrome. They subsequently filed for bankruptcy. "That was when we decided...we're done with all this," explains Heather.

I haven't seen the film, so I can't comment on it directly. But looking at the trailer, this appears to be a film about formerly middle class Americans who thought they were living the "right" kind of lives—"we were living a fairy tale life, right down to the white picket fence"—only to be suddenly confronted with the fact that the U.S. economy was (and is) merely a house of cards. When that flimsy stack of cards fell down after the Housing Bubble burst, these formerly comfortable Americans found themselves on the outside looking in.

 

 

Comments

[Wanooski]

Can't wait til the election hullaballoo gets into full swing, everybody claiming that their candidate will fix all all the problems in the world. They sweep their new candidate in and nothing changes. But of course then it's all because the other side is being obstructionist. Not one of the brain dead public will stop and think to themselves "Hmmm, maybe there's more to our problems than we thought. Maybe we can't fix it by voting. Maybe there's more to it than political parties."