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Park Avenue: Money, Power and the American Dream

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Produced by
  
Blair Foster

Initial release
  
2 November 2012

Producer
  
Blair Foster

7.5/10
IMDb


Narrated by
  
Alex Gibney

Director
  
Alex Gibney

Music director
  
Peter Nashel

Park Avenue: Money, Power and the American Dream wwwthespeachcomwpcontentuploads201211park

Written by
  
Alex Gibney Chad Beck Adam Bolt

Starring
  
Jack Abramoff Michele Bachmann

Cinematography
  
Ronan Killeen Lisa Rinzler

Edited by
  
Erin Barnett Chad Beck Adam Bolt

Cast
  
Jack Abramoff, Michele Bachmann

Screenplay
  
Alex Gibney, Chad Beck, Adam Bolt

Similar
  
Directed by Alex Gibney, Movies about wealth, Documentaries

Park avenue money power and the american dream why poverty


Park Avenue: Money, Power and the American Dream is a 2012 documentary about the wealth gap in the United States directed by Alex Gibney.

Contents

Park avenue money power and the american dream why poverty trailer


Summary

The documentary compares the access to opportunities of residents of Park Avenue both on the Upper East Side and in the South Bronx. It draws upon Michael Gross's book "740 Park: The Story of the World’s Richest Apartment Building", which showed that many billionaires live in that building. It goes on to explain that billionaire heir David Koch made significant donations to Paul Ryan in the same way that banker Steven Schwartzman lobbied Charles Schumer—for their own gain. The documentary includes interviews with a doorman at 740 Park Avenue, journalist Jane Mayer, Yale University Professor Jacob Hacker, University of California, Berkeley Professor Paul Piff, and Republican advisor Bruce Bartlett.

Critical reception

Reviewing it for The New York Times, Neil Genzlinger deplored the fact that the documentary equated great wealth with "callousness," adding that many wealthy people are very generous with their resources. In The Daily Telegraph, Neil Midgley compared it to Michael Moore's documentaries. He went on to suggest that it was "not entirely unconvincing," calling it "demagoguery." He concluded that it was "a poor contribution." Writing for The New York Observer, Kim Velsey suggested, "the documentary unfurls like a crime story." She concluded that the documentary "makes a compelling case that inequality imperils democracy and that the victims of the inequality include not only those who find themselves in the rapidly expanding underclass, but the American dream itself."

References

Park Avenue: Money, Power and the American Dream Wikipedia