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America’s Burning

Director

David Smick

Executive Producers

Barry Levinson, Michael Douglas

Producer

Ian Michaels

Editor

Ron Vignone

Cinematographers

Ben Hardwicke, Robert Brinkmann, Ray Wongchinda

Executive produced by Academy Award winners Michael Douglas and Barry Levinson, America’s Burning probes the economic reasons for today’s hate and division. The middle class is shrinking. The American Dream’s promise of great economic mobility for all is being killed off by a ruthless corporate elite that is strangling American capitalism.

Narrated by Michael Douglas and written and directed by NYT bestselling writer David Smick, the film suggests the middle class feels disenfranchised and these feelings have grown in recent decades under both political parties. The film’s extensive cast includes James Carville, Leon Panetta, James Baker and Larry Summers, and explores how a civil war could easily lead to a financial crisis that takes us all down. But the film is also hopeful and highlights America’s history of resilience. And how its best days could still lie ahead if its people do the hard work of understanding each other.

Post-screening discussion with director David Smick, and Rob Johnson, moderated by Jason Dick, Editor-in-Chief of CQ Roll Call.

david-smick_img

David Smick

Director, America's Burning

David Smick is Chairman and CEO of JSI, Inc., a global macroeconomic strategy firm based in Washington, D.C. Launched in 1986, the firm’s first client was George Soros. Other clients included JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, and many of the world’s leading financial institutions. In 1987, Mr. Smick founded The International Economy magazine, read by many in the world’s central banking and finance ministry communities. In 2008, Mr. Smick wrote the international bestseller The World is Curved (Penguin PorYolio), which predicted the coming financial crisis. The New York Times called the book “astonishingly prescient.” In 2020, with the help of Academy Award-winning director Barry Levinson, who served as Executive Producer, Mr. Smick wrote and directed the full-length documentary film Stars and Strife, distributed by Starz. The Washington Post called the film “superb.” David Brooks of The New York Times said: “If you’ve watched Stars and Strife once, watch it six more times. It’s all about hope.” Mr. Smick, 70, is married and has three children and four grandchildren. A frequent critic of today’s hyper-partisan politics, he is a registered Independent.