Hot Docs 21 Review: Bank Job (Daniel Edelstyn, Hilary Powell)

One of the most important documentaries you could see this year explores the relationship between everyday people and the banking industry. The system is meant to keep workers in debt and it doesn’t even stop when they have passed on. UK filmmakers Daniel Edelstyn and Hilary Powell explore the financial situations that have had a global impact. Despite a high rate of employment, workers are cursed by low wages and high housing costs. Big banks were bailed out, thus the economy collapsed because tax revenues were not coming in.

Capitalism couldn’t cope with the pandemic and many local groups took care of people by providing food through soup kitchens. People have absolutely had enough! Productivity is at an all-time high so a group named Positive Money seeks to create money free of debt and to remove power from the banks. It reminded me of Tomorrow (2015), the documentary co-directed by Cyril Dion and Mélanie Laurent, where they explore local currency as an efficient option to reduce transportation and to keep individual cities and regions strong.

The documentary also explores the idea of a personal debt write off in the form of some sort of Jubilee, explaining that when the weight is lifted, it will benefit everyone. It’s highly recommended to people who are interested in collectively fighting against a broken system and picking up where the Occupy Movement left off.

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Author: Allison McCulloch