American Winter 2013 123movies

Watch: American Winter 2013 123movies, Full Movie Online – Documentary feature film that follows the personal stories of families struggling in the aftermath of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. Filmed over the course of one winter in one American city, the film presents an intimate snapshot of the state of the nation’s economy as it is playing out in millions of American families, and highlights the human consequences of the decline of the middle class and the fracturing of the American Dream..
Plot: Documentary feature film that follows the personal stories of families struggling in the aftermath of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. Filmed over the course of one winter in one American city, the film presents an intimate snapshot of the state of the nation’s economy as it is playing out in millions of American families, and highlights the human consequences of the decline of the middle class and the fracturing of the American Dream
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Ratings:

	6.9/10 Votes: 305
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	N/A | MetaCritic
	N/A Votes: 2 Popularity: 1.754 | TMDB

Reviews:

Inversely Comforting
My family is going through the misery and stress that the 8 families followed in the movie are/we’re going through. They say exactly what I say, every day: “We worked hard..played by the rules..how did this happen?” The best answer came from a not-financially struggling gentleman well-versed in middle-class financial destruction. He observed that for the middle class in this country, “One strike and you’re out”. I did not take comfort watching these 8 families suffer. I took comfort that they expressed my thoughts and feelings. I felt less alone, that my feelings of pain and misery were valid, and that I wasn’t crazy. The movie takes place in Portland, OR during the winter. It was bleak, cold, wet, and overcast. It mirrored the families’ misery perfectly. At the end, they showed what happened to each family. I was happy to see that most of them were either back on their feet or making progress to get there. I was sad that the other families were still struggling. The middle class is definitely one strike and you’re out. Layoffs, illnesses, accidents, including work-related ones, divorce, unexpected pregnancies, etc. can happen to anyone at any time. The families in “American Winter” believed in The American Dream and worked hard to make it happen for them. They thought, like I thought, that being solidly middle class protected us from depending on this country’s shrinking social services safety net. And from food stamps, food pantries, homeless shelters, foreclosure, eviction, car repo, going w/o electricity, heat, and water from falling behind, going w/o health and car insurance, donating plasma as a source of regular income. And from moving back in with your parents. Or living out of a friend’s unheated garage w/no electricity or running water. The worst worst part was the effect on the children in these families. They were depressed, angry, frightened, and ashamed. One 12 year old blamed herself for her family’s situation, because she became ill and there were medical bills. They ate and showered at friends’ houses. Or went to friends’ houses to escape the constant stress from hearing their parents fight from constant stress. You don’t have to be middle class and in financial crisis for “American Winter” to resonate with you. One strike and you’re out.

Interesting, But Slanted and Inaccurate
I notice the other negative review is from a clearly far right poster. I am not, I’m definitely a Dem, support social programs and am fully aware of the pain the recession created. However, that said, this film was still wildly slanted, inaccurate and to be honest, most of these people were never really “middle class”, even at the best of times.

How do I know this? I live in PDX and I was unemployed for an extended period of time during the Great Recession, I went on a million interviews–and I grew up very poor. I had even more difficulty because I was older (mid to late 40’s) and had worked in a heavily recession hit industry (hospitality). IN fact I frequent lost jobs to vastly less experienced, much younger and hotter women. And all the subsequent jobs I’ve both turned down and ultimately wound up at paid significantly less than my previous one (though I now get to work from home and it’s less stressful, so there are always advantages)…however…many of the points ARE still faulty:

1) The bulk of these people were never “middle class”: one family lives in a trailer park; another was a family of 4 previously living on 40K in an apartment (just barely working class, IMHO), one family appeared to be tweakers; the recently widowed mom obviously wasn’t middle class, because her husband’s insurance policy alone would’ve saved her from her rapid descent into homelessness; I don’t even understand the insurance issue lady because Oregon has SCHIP for uninsured kids,”terming” her employment would’ve made her COBRA-eligible during that period AND violated both federal and Oregon’s more generous FMLA laws. The “college educated” woman was a CNA and technical college (trade school) educated. Had she bothered to research her job choice, she would’ve known what a mistake it was. And she never made more, even before the recession.

2) There are plenty of minimum wage, crappy jobs in Oregon. Even at the height of the recession these were available. ACS (a call center) was always hiring and never met their recruitment goals. Awful job? Sure, but it paid $$$, so there were things you could do.

3) Almost every family had other, both short and long term options available to them to avoid the destitution they all seemed to face:

a)the mom skipping meals: Ramen is 5 packet for $1, every day at Fred’s. Lame meal choice? Sure, but lame beats going hungry. Her husband had the most clear cut case of a civil rights violation I’ve ever seen, time to file a BOLI complaint. And again, plenty of other minimum wage jobs to be had.

b) the actual previously middle class dad with the Down Syndrome kid, had parents maybe 100 miles away. Time to leave your beloved farm (that’s already in foreclosure) and go live with them. Really, it might embarrassing, but it beats being homeless. Not to mention, he owed $457K on that house—even while working, how would he have EVER afforded that on $60K? Even lowish mortgage payments would’ve been at $4K per month—-already more than his net pay.

c) Princess apartment mommy with her suburban/SAHM fantasy world: Honey, your husband never made all that much money and his unemployment (if he opted not to take taxes out until tax time) would’ve already been very close to his original take home pay. Had you even cashiered part time at Target, your income would’ve ran about the same. Not sure why she felt working was worse than taking charity or being evicted. Not to mention, plenty of people (myself and my husband included) experience such setbacks in their 20’s.

I’m really not sure WHY he took a job that paid substantially less than he brought home on UI to begin with, especially since UI ran for 2 years back then (with extensions). Not to mention, 10 interviews is NOTHING!

d) CNA Mommy had chosen her career—-and I would’ve worked a second job in her situation.

e) Hospital Mom: talk to the hospital social worker. It’s their job to help you with this and work this out. In Oregon we have SCHIP, other catastrophic coverage, etc. Not to mention there are grants, etc to cover just that. Or simply declare bankruptcy. Plenty of options there—-and the hospital would’ve worked with her to find them.

f) Former VW finance dude: you’re fully qualified to sell cars or even be a finance manager (the best paying job in the dealership). Again, yes they were hiring during this time frame. And again, if it worked out better for you to collect UI (I do get that), why wasn’t your wife working? Back when most wives stayed home, they did go work to supplement the family income during periods of the breadwinner’s unemployment. Because instead of living a soccer mommy fantasy, they looked to keep their family afloat. Nowadays, most moms DO work, yet this piece picked primarily non-working moms and portrayed them as victims. Very non-feminist.

G) Widow mom and son were eligible for survivors’ benefits, emergency housing, etc–not to mention, most jobs carry some sort of minimal life insurance for free. I get that she was completely devastated, but again, the well being of my child would be my first priority.

BTW, the bulk of this wasn’t even shot in PDX, but clearly Clackamas County—which is, ironically, largely Republican. And I bet you most of these people previously voted Republican.

Other Information:

Original Language en
Runtime N/A
Budget 0
Revenue 0
Status Released
Rated N/A
Genre Documentary, Drama, News
Director Harry Gantz, Joe Gantz
Writer N/A
Actors N/A
Country United States
Awards 1 win & 2 nominations
Production Company N/A
Website N/A

Technical Information:

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Laboratory N/A
Film Length N/A
Negative Format N/A
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