American Winter

The twin blows of job losses and advancing poverty hit several Portland, OR, families hard in filmmaker Joe Gantz's American Winter, a melancholy look at paycheck-to-paycheck despair and reduced circumstances in the wake of 2008's economic crash. Cameras follow several representative families in weakening income brackets, whose breadwinners have lost jobs to overseas, suffered cuts in benefits, and are now left slaving for the minimum wage—when they can find jobs at all. One woman is newly widowed, experiencing her first winter with her son in a homeless shelter. Another household has to choose between paying the mortgage or utilities bills (a good neighbor allows them to run an electrical cord all the way to his property). A man whose son has Down syndrome faces foreclosure on a homestead that he says brings the boy stability. Another couple, turned out of their own place, must move back in with parents. While some social-service organizations offer relief, one pastor interviewed here declares that he has never seen so many new needy with so few safety nets. Occasional intertitles offer statistics on corporate job-killing practices and the pernicious decay of the middle-class, but policy-makers and apologists for Wall Street are conspicuous by their absence. A powerful, timely documentary, this is highly recommended. Aud: C, P. (C. Cassady)