Casino Jack and the United Sates of Money

NEW DOCS

Alex Gibney, acclaimed director of Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, turns his camera on another great American scandal. Gibney charts the breathtaking rise and fall of lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who was convicted in 2006 for defrauding American Indian tribes of tens of millions of dollars, tax evasion, and conspiracy to bribe public officials. Gibney traces Abramoff’s particular form of political zealotry to the College Republicans, whose chairman he became in 1981. As we tour the various worlds in which Abramoff maneuvered and manipulated, we see that his outlandish shenanigans only scratched the surface of the potential for fraud. As much as anything, this film is about the corrosive power of money in our political system. Sweatshops, spies, casinos, killings, the web of corruption is so tangled as to make us suspect that it is not those who misstep who are in the minority, but rather those who get caught.  ST

Director

Alex Gibney

Producers

Alex Gibney, Alison Ellwood, Zena Barakat

Editor

Alison Ellwood

Cinematographer

Maryse Alberti

Release Year

2010

Festival Year

2010

Country

United States

Run Time

122 minutes