Margaret Atwood, Jennifer Baichwel’s Payback opens March 16 in Toronto

Payback, based on Margaret Atwood’s 2008 book Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth, debuts in Toronto on March 16 on the heels of a successful premiere at Sundance 2012.

Payback is a riveting and poetic documentary on “debt” in its various forms—societal, personal, environmental, spiritual, criminal, and economic.

Filmmaker Jennifer Baichwal (Manufactured Landscapes) interweaves these debtor/creditor relationships: two families in a years-long Albanian blood feud; the BP oil spill vs. the Earth; mistreated Florida tomato farm workers and their bosses; imprisoned media mogul Conrad Black and the U.S. justice system.

Mobile Baykeeper, Casi Callaway is featured in the film. Callaway, recognized by Lifetime Network for her environmental efforts, is working to clean up local water after the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010. Since the Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill disaster, Callaway has worked tirelessly with staff members, volunteers, elected officials and the public in a united effort to respond to, contain and clean up the ongoing spill.

Filmmaker, Baichwal, has been a long-time supporter of the Waterkeeper movement and Lake Ontario Waterkeeper.

Payback premiered at Sundance to positive reviews: "Both visceral and revelatory, Payback plunges us deeply into reconsidering the roots of social inequity, what we value, and debt’s profound role as an organizing principle in our lives—one that shapes relationships, society, and the fate of the planet."

The film opens in Toronto on March 16 at the Varsity Theatre.

More details available at www.mercuryfilms.ca.

Watch the trailer on YouTube.