Director Marc Levin doesn’t intend to let politicians, the media, or the gainfully employed forget about their unemployed neighbors.
Levin’s new documentary, Hard Times: Lost on Long Island (trailer after jump), interviews the long-term unemployed in Levittown, N.Y., a city of about 50,000 known as one of the first successful post-World War II modern suburban enclaves. The Nassau County city had a median family income in excess of $90,000; only 2.5% of its residents lived below the federal poverty rate; and a home ownership rate of 91%, according to the latest U.S. Census.
The personal stories in the film contradict the narrative that the unemployed aren't trying hard enough to find new jobs. Many in the film also describe their depression and anxiety over their unemployment.
"Having cancer was easier than being unemployed," says one.
"What we want are jobs. What we need are jobs," says another.
“We’ve heard so much mischaracterization of the people who are out of work—the moocher class, people who are lazy. ‘It’s them, it’s not us,’” Levin said on Morning Joe Thursday. “So here you’re going to neighborhoods that look beautiful, that we’d all like to live in, grow up in—nice houses, nice cars. And yet, behind those doors people are collapsing inside, disappearing really. The idea was a snapshot that would humanize these [unemployment] statistics that we repeat over and over, but also break down, ‘It’s them; it’s somebody else.’ No, it’s your neighbor, your friend, it’s your family—it’s us.”
The U.S. unemployment rate is expected to stay above 6% for the next four years, according to the majority of economists surveyed by the Associated Press in its latest Economy Survey. That analysis arrives ahead of Friday’s monthly jobs report from the federal government, which is expected to show around 100,000 jobs created—not enough to put a dent in 8.2% national unemployment rate.
Levin noted that the people interviewed in Hard Times “internalize the blame,” and don’t discuss their plight with friends, or even family, because of their shame. “It’s almost as if these people have disappeared,” he said. “Sometimes their neighbors don’t even know…It’s human capital that’s going to waste.”
The documentary will air on HBO beginning July 9.
Leave a Comment:
As a long term unemployed, I can tell you from what I have seen so far, this documentary just barely scratches the surface on what a human goes through being unemployed for a long term. IF any producer or host want a great insight on the long term unemployed, just ask. I can promise you no documentary will ever quite show how life is being unemployed long term.
Great Comment....I am had to leave the US, (NZ) to continue my career in software engineering....and imagine in 2000 the told us in school "You are the new manufacturing..." If I couldn't find a job and still couldn't if I moved back....what are other career fields doing for work? I hope things turn around for you Jason.....
Thank you for the kind words, I will take anything, but much like the story said, companies are turning me away because I have such a long gap between employment. Glad you have done well in NZ, that has always looked like a nice place to me.
I have been unemployed and have not received paychecks for 16 out of the last 17 years and it has been absolutely devastating. It has a total impact on your life being unemployed. I am well-educated, smart and wonderful but none of those qualities matter. All that matters is that a group of white collar employers would not hire me so my life is forever ruined. I was not able to have children because of the money and will miss out on kids and grandkids for the rest of my life. It's not just a matter that they made me too poor to have children while they have enough money for everything and had middle class mothers who weren't so starved they couldn't have them. They ruled over me too much using money as a weapon. I never thought growing up in a nice neighborhood that I wouldn't get a job and wouldn't be able to have full life. I feel so deeply for all the unemployed. They will not be able to have life until they get paychecks again. I will always feel like my life was taken away from me because I did not get to have paychecks because as an adult female, my God-given right to children was taken away forever. To all the unemployed out there, don't ever, ever, ever give up because the door has to open in order for you to have life. I hope such tragedy that happened to me will not happen to all of you.
Thank you for sharing Steph, I do not think even people who are sympathetic or feel empathy for long term unemployed understand what is going on with people who have been unemployed for years now. I, with a lot of help from friends, family, and the government programs have managed to stay alive and make life adjustments to accommodate living without money. Through living without money, I have found many other pleasures in life that I had missed before, mostly the chance to spend time with my older relatives. I am very lucky to have these relatives as I know many who do not. Again, TYVM for sharing and your kind words.
I wish this documentary had consisted of a more diverse group instead of baby boomer-generation married couples. I'm a college educated (I have a M.A.) single mom who has been unemployed since July 1, 2011 after my grant-funded job lost funding because of budget cuts. I've applied for education jobs, but most colleges and universities prefer to hire alumni instead of graduates from other universities. I've applied for private sector jobs, only to receive rejection e-mails without the benefit of an interview. It's one thing to struggle financially when you have a spouse to rely on for moral and emotional support; who do you turn to when you're a single parent?
I never thought I would see the day when a college degree wasn't enough to secure gainful employment.
I wept while watching this documentary. Our country is in worse trouble now then it was during the great depression, let no one kid you about that. I'm afraid that the entire system has gone into a tailspin and there's no way to right it. The middle-class MUST pull together as one and force our politicians to stop the floods of money and jobs to foreign soils. Globalization was catastrophic mistake, we must be self-sustainable if this great country is to survive.