Back to selection
Watch Freedom Dreams: Black Women and the Student Debt Crisis
Watch Freedom Dreams: Black Women and the Student Debt Crisis, the latest documentary short from The Intercept. Directed by Astra Taylor and Erick Stoll—two former 25 New Faces of Film from 2006 and 2017, respectively—the doc profiles Black women who have been buried by the staggering amount of student loan debt they’ve accrued. The film is narrated by former Ohio state Senator Nina Turner, who is an advocate for cancelling student loan debt nationwide.
The film points out that Black women are often forced to take out more loans compared to other demographics due to an overwhelming lack of intergenerational wealth coupled with other societal inequities. Furthermore, the existing pay gap along gender and racial lines means that Black women struggle for longer to chip away at that debt, leaving many anxious that they will never cease making these interest-heavy payments.
With the moratorium on student loan payments set to expire on August 31, the nation’s 45 million borrowers are nervously waiting to see if Joe Biden stands by his campaign promise to eliminate a significant portion of the $2 trillion in student loan debt amassed across the country. Though he vowed to eliminate a “minimum” of $10,000 per borrower, many believe that this debt should be unilaterally cancelled by the president. “If Biden can cancel $10k, then we know he can cancel all of it,” says artist and educator Dr. Shamell Bell in the film.
The making of Freedom Dreams: Black Women and the Student Debt Crisis was supported by the Economic Hardship Reporting Project.
