James D. Scurlock

Birth : 1971-09-15, Seattle, Washington, USA

History

​From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia James Duncan Scurlock (born September 15, 1971) is an American director, producer, writer and financial adviser. He is probably best-known for his critically acclaimed documentary Maxed Out: Hard Times, Easy Credit and the Era of Predatory Lenders and his award winning book, Maxed Out: Hard Times in the Age of Easy Credit. Born in Seattle, Washington, he attended the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, studying finance, but left in his senior year without receiving a degree. While in college, he opened four restaurants, which he sold in 1994. He then moved to Dallas, where he published a successful investing newsletter titled Restaurant Investor and wrote freelance for several magazines. In 2002, Scurlock moved to Los Angeles, to pursue a career in filmmaking. His first documentary, Parents of the Year (2004), was featured in over 25 film festivals and won numerous awards, including the Audience Award at the Los Angeles Film Festival and the Jury Awards at the Austin Film Festival, the USA Film Festival and the Palm Springs Short Film Festival. Parents of the Year was bought by HBO and broadcast extensively on HBO Latino. Scurlock's second short, Stumped! (2005), follows three eccentric citizens who run against Arnold Schwarzenegger for Governor of California. His first feature length documentary was the critically acclaimed Maxed Out: Hard Times, Easy Credit and the Era of Predatory Lenders (2006), which he also produced. Scurlock also wrote a major book based on Maxed Out. In conjunction with the global release of the film, his book, Maxed Out: Hard Times in the Age of Easy Credit (2006), was published through Scribner, a division of Simon & Schuster. In 2008, Scurlock received The Ridenhour Book Prize for Maxed Out: Hard Times in the Age of Easy Credit (ISBN 1-416-53253-6). James Scurlock lives in Santa Monica, California. Description above from the Wikipedia article James Scurlock, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Movies

Divorce Corp.
Divorce Corp.
Writer
More money flows through the family courts, and into the hands of courthouse insiders, than in all other court systems in America combined – over $50 billion a year and growing. Through extensive research and interviews with the nation’s top divorce lawyers, mediators, judges, politicians, litigants and journalists, DIVORCE CORP. uncovers how children are torn from their homes, unlicensed custody evaluators extort money, and abusive judges play god with people’s lives while enriching their friends. This explosive documentary reveals the family courts as unregulated, extra-constitutional fiefdoms. Rather than assist victims of domestic crimes, these courts often precipitate them. And rather than help parents and children move on, as they are mandated to do, these courts - and their associates - drag out cases for years, sometimes decades, ultimately resulting in a rash of social ills, including home foreclosure, bankruptcy, suicide and violence.
Maxed Out
Maxed Out
Director
Maxed Out takes us on a journey deep inside the American debt-style, where everything seems okay as long as the minimum monthly payment arrives on time. Sure, most of us may have that sinking feeling that something isn't quite right, but we're told not to worry. After all, there's always more credit!