Payback

Margaret Atwood's visionary non-fiction work Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth is the basis for this riveting and poetic documentary on "debt" in its various forms-societal, personal, environmental, spiritual, criminal, and of course, economic. Filmmaker Jennifer Baichwal (Manufactured Landscapes) strikingly interweaves these (sometimes surprising) debtor/creditor relationships: two families in a years-long Albanian blood feud; the BP oil spill vs. the Gulf Coast; mistreated Florida tomato farm workers and their bosses; imprisoned media mogul Conrad Black and the U.S. justice system. With stunning cinematography and insightful commentary, the film is a brilliant, game-changing rumination on the subject.

Payback features appearances by Margaret Atwood; economist-activist Raj Patel; International Crisis Group CEO and former war crimes prosecutor Louise Arbour; ecological economist William Rees; religious history commentator Karen Armstrong; and writer Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation).