You are forgiven—unless you took a loan to pay for your education, in which case you are very not forgiven. In which case, you are unforgivable.
Silly, right? But according to Loan Wolves, this is largely how United States law conceives of student-loan debt.
If you’re wondering how that’s possible, so was Blake, our documentary’s director and overall guide. Luckily for us he asked around.
Economists, journalists, civil servants, politicians; even regular folk answer. It all started with the quiet addition of two lines to a 1998 congressional education bill. What followed was 45 million Americans with student debt. Less marriages, less homeownership, less spending in the community. Vivian the OB-GYN having to work at a higher-paying job rather than at the low-income-community health center that was her dream. Scott, with a wife and two children, contemplating suicide. The more we learn the more the student-loan system seems predatory and hopeless.
Mercifully, the movie’s tone is much more upbeat. Blake’s thinking-out-loud narration is curious, not accusatory; his humor, just as practiced as his Washington, D.C. connections. Potshots aside this moviemaker (and investigative journalist, and former political staffer) has a knack for being likeable.
If you’re looking for drama, comedy, adventure, and mystery that’s real, you could do worse than to watch Loan Wolves. (A line that’s all my own, for the record.)
Blake amused—I mean, Blake following it all.