As Goes Janesville
"It's the Economy, Stupid!"
•
1h 27m
Directed by Brad Lichtenstein • Documentary • 2012 • 87 minutes
As Goes Janesville catapults viewers to the front lines of a national debate over the fate of the American economy and the survival of the middle class – a debate that turned into a pitched battle in the normally tranquil state of Wisconsin.
Our story begins the day before Christmas, 2008, when GM shuts down its Janesville, Wisconsin plant. Thousands of workers bring home pink slips as GM’s closing triggers a chain reaction of factory shut downs that triples unemployment and threatens to undermine a mighty middle class that has thrived in Janesville for more than a century. While workers try to figure out how to move on with their lives, town leaders dig in for what will become an epic showdown over the future of the American Dream — a battle that bursts onto the national scene when 14 Senators — including one of our main characters — leave the state to try to prevent newly-elected Governor Scott Walker’s bill to end collective bargaining. Meanwhile, Janesville's leaders try to attract new business and reinvent their community despite the division that has taken over the state. As Goes Janesville, so goes America.
Up Next in "It's the Economy, Stupid!"
-
The Clearstream Affair
Directed by Vincent Garenq • Drama • With Gilles Lellouche, Charles Berling, Laurent Capelluto, Florence Loiret Caille, Grégoire Bonnet • 2016 • 102 minutes
In this ripped-from-the-headlines French thriller, journalist Denis Robert (Point Blank's Gilles Lellouche) sets the world of finance ablaz...
-
Dying for Gold
Directed by Catherine Meyburgh & Richard Pakleppa • Documentary • 2019 • 98 minutes
In the biggest class action law suit the country had ever seen, South Africa’s largest gold mining companies were accused of knowingly exposing miners to deadly dust and disease.
Now, harrowing underground f...
-
Marx Reloaded
Directed by Jason Barker • Documentary • 2011 • 52 minutes
Today a new generation of philosophers, artists and political activists are returning to Marx's ideas in order to try to make sense of the crisis and to consider whether a world without or beyond capitalism is possible. Is the severity o...
