James Scurlock

Last updated

James Scurlock
Born
James Duncan Scurlock

(1971-09-15) September 15, 1971 (age 52)
Occupation(s)Director, producer, financial writer
Years active2004–present

James Duncan Scurlock (born September 15, 1971) is an American director, producer, writer and financial adviser. He is probably best known for his documentary Maxed Out: Hard Times, Easy Credit and the Era of Predatory Lenders and his book, Maxed Out: Hard Times in the Age of Easy Credit. His most recent book, King Larry: The Life and Ruins of a Billionaire Genius , is a biography of Larry Hillblom. [1]

Contents

Biography

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.

In early 2012, Scurlock released King Larry: The Life and Ruins of a Billionaire Genius , a biography of the DHL co-founder, Larry Hillblom.[ citation needed ]

Personal life

James Scurlock lives in Palm Springs, California.

Publishing history

Film

Books

Related Research Articles

<i>Band of Brothers</i> (miniseries) 2001 American war drama miniseries

Band of Brothers is a 2001 American war drama miniseries based on historian Stephen E. Ambrose's 1992 non-fiction book of the same name. It was created by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks, who also served as executive producers, and who had collaborated on the 1998 World War II film Saving Private Ryan. Episodes first aired on HBO starting on September 9, 2001. Critically acclaimed, the series won the Emmy and Golden Globe awards for best miniseries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Todd Haynes</span> American filmmaker

Todd Haynes is an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. His films span four decades with themes examining the personalities of well-known musicians, dysfunctional and dystopian societies, and blurred gender roles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rory Kennedy</span> American filmmaker

Rory Elizabeth Katherine Kennedy is an American documentary filmmaker. Kennedy has made documentary films that center on social issues such as addiction, her opposition to nuclear power, the treatment of prisoners-of-war, and the politics of the Mexican border fence. She is the youngest child of U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy and Ethel Skakel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Booker</span> American musician and singer (1939–1983)

James Carroll Booker III was an American New Orleans rhythm and blues keyboardist and singer. Flamboyant in personality and style, and possessing extraordinary technical skill on the piano, he was dubbed "the Black Liberace."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vilmos Zsigmond</span> Hungarian-American cinematographer

Vilmos ZsigmondASC was a Hungarian-American cinematographer. His work in cinematography helped shape the look of American movies in the 1970s, making him one of the leading figures in the American New Wave movement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jerry Weintraub</span> American film producer (1937–2015)

Jerome Charles Weintraub was an American film producer, talent manager and actor whose television films won him three Emmys.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kevin Brownlow</span> English filmmaker and film historian

Kevin Brownlow is a British film historian, television documentary-maker, filmmaker, author, and film editor. He is best known for his work documenting the history of the silent era, having become interested in silent film at the age of eleven. This interest grew into a career spent documenting and restoring film. Brownlow has rescued many silent films and their history. His initiative in interviewing many largely forgotten, elderly film pioneers in the 1960s and 1970s preserved a legacy of early mass-entertainment cinema. He received an Academy Honorary Award at the 2nd Annual Governors Awards given by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on 13 November 2010. This was the first occasion on which an Academy Honorary Award was given to a film preservationist.

A credit bureau is a data collection agency that gathers account information from various creditors and provides that information to a consumer reporting agency in the United States, a credit reference agency in the United Kingdom, a credit reporting body in Australia, a credit information company (CIC) in India, a Special Accessing Entity in the Philippines, and also to private lenders. It is not the same as a credit rating agency.

Chris Barrett is an American Internet entrepreneur, film director, spokesperson, and author who is featured in the 2004 Sundance award winning documentary The Corporation and its 2020 sequel The New Corporation: The Unfortunately Necessary Sequel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Larry Hillblom</span> American businessman (1943–1995)

Larry Lee Hillblom was an American businessman and, alongside Adrian Dalsey and Robert Lynn, co-founded the shipping company DHL Worldwide Express. After his disappearance, his estate paid $360 million to four impoverished children whom he had fathered as a result of "sex safari" trips in Southeast Asian countries, where he reportedly raped prepubescent girls and teenaged virgins.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Benoît Charest</span> Musical artist

Benoît Charest is a Canadian guitarist and film score composer from Quebec. He is best known for the soundtrack of the animated film The Triplets of Belleville (2003), for which he won a César Award for Best Music Written for a Film as well as a Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Music. The song "Belleville Rendez-vous", in particular, earned him an Academy Award nomination as well as a Grammy Award nomination.

Truly Indie is an "innovative distribution program" providing independent filmmakers the sales and marketing tools necessary to distribute their films by-passing traditional distribution companies. By providing a way for self-funded distribution, Truly Indie aims to enable filmmakers to "retain control" over all rights and decisions relating to their films. The program was launched by Mark Cuban and Todd Wagner's media company 2929 Entertainment in 2005 in Austin, Texas.

<i>Maxed Out</i> 2006 American film

Maxed Out: Hard Times, Easy Credit and the Era of Predatory Lenders (2006) is an independent feature-length documentary film and (2007) book that chronicles abusive practices in the credit card industry.

The Ridenhour Prizes are awards in four categories given annually in recognition of those "who persevere in acts of truth-telling that protect the public interest, promote social justice or illuminate a more just vision of society".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brian Keane</span> Musical artist

Brian Keane is an American composer, music producer, and guitarist. Keane has been described as "a musician's musician, a composer's composer, and one of the most talented producers of a generation" by Billboard magazine.

Michael Hudson is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American investigative journalist. He is currently head of investigations at the Guardian US.

<i>Poodle Springs</i> (film) 1998 television film directed by Bob Rafelson

Poodle Springs is a 1998 neo-noir HBO film directed by Bob Rafelson, starring James Caan as private detective Philip Marlowe.

The Witness: From the Balcony of Room 306 is a 2008 documentary short film created to honor the 40th annual remembrance of the life and death of Martin Luther King Jr. Directed by Adam Pertofsky, the film received a 2008 Oscar nomination in the "Best Documentary Short Subject" Category at the 81st Academy Awards.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tom Donahue (filmmaker)</span> American film director and producer

Tom Donahue is an American film director, producer, and co-showrunner. His work as writer, director, and showrunner includes the Paramount Plus Original docuseries Murder of God's Banker and the upcoming six-part docuseries Mafia Spies, based on the 2019 book by Thomas Maier about the CIA-Mafia assassination plots against Fidel Castro.

References