Maxed Out

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Maxed Out
Promotional film poster
Directed by	James Scurlock
Produced by	James Scurlock
Written by	James Scurlock
Starring	Chris Barrett Robin Leach Elizabeth Warren
Cinematography	Jon Aaseng
Editing by	Alexis Spraic
Distributed by	Magnolia Home Entertainment NetFlix Red Envelope Entertainment Truly Indie
Release date(s)	March 10, 2006
Running time	87 minutes
Country	USA
Language	English
Official website
IMDb profile

Maxed Out: Hard Times, Easy Credit and the Era of Predatory Lenders (2006) is an independent feature-length documentary film and book that chronicles abusive practices in the credit card industry. Written and directed by James Scurlock, the film and book uses interviews with creditors, debtors, academics, and others to illustrate its story.^[1] The film premiered at the South by South West Film Festival in Austin, TX in 2006 where it claimed the Special Jury Prize. It went on to several film fests including Seattle, Full Frame Documtary, Maui, New Zealand, Milwaukee Intrenational, Woodstock, Bergen, Leeds International, Oxford and IDFA (Amsterdam) Film Festivals. It has been released in movie theaters in select cities in the United States in March 2007 and the DVD is due nationally in June 2007. "Maxed Out" the book, is out now and printed by Scribner, a division of Simon and Schuster.

Scurlock's purpose for the film and book was to raise awareness of how credit and lending issues are affecting society.^[1] The main premises of the documentary and book are that banks and other creditors deliberately market to people who are more likely to have problems paying, and that the creditors benefit from connections to government, the debt collection industry, and from lawmaker apathy.^[2]

[edit] References

^ ^a ^b Singletary, Michelle. "Maxed out on debt? Help's on way, in a film and a book", The Washington Post, 2007-03-12.
^ Hornaday, Ann. "Give "Maxed Out" credit", The Washington Post, 2007-03-11.