Interview

Director

Oscar-Nominated Doc Maker Steve James on his Gripping Immigrant’s Story Abacus: Small Enough to Jail

Chicago filmmaker Steve James has a fraught history with the Oscars dating back to 1994, when his critically acclaimed box office hit Hoop Dreams failed to get nominated for an Academy Award. The snub outraged late movie critic Roger Ebert, prompted an Entertainment Weekly expose and inspired changes in Academy voting procedures. Cut to 2011, when James made The Interrupters, a gritty group portrait of reformed gang members fighting to stop murders on the streets of Chicago.

By  |  February 20, 2018

Interview

Director

Director Steven James on his Crucial Doc Abacus: Small Enough to Jail

When discussing the 2008 financial crisis, the word "big" comes up a lot. The big banks, The Big Short, too big to fail. But the first American financial institution to be indicted for mortgage-lending misconduct after 2008 was not big, as director Steve James acknowledges in the title of his new documentary, Abacus: Small Enough to Jail, which opens in New York on May 19.

"I had to inform them today that they have dropped from being the 2,651st largest bank to the 2,652nd largest bank,

By  |  May 18, 2017