I know you probably don’t want to read about economic issues during the weekend (or ever, maybe), but last night I took in “I.O.U.S.A” at the Maryland Film Festival, which fully opened my eyes to America’s dire situation.

Keep in mind, I’m not huge on economics. Or numbers, frankly. Yet, I was riveted.

The 8 p.m. Friday screening of the documentary, a hit at Sundance (where it was just one of 16 documentaries selected out of 953 submitted), the film might end up being a wake-up call for how the United States spends and saves its dough.

Inspired, in part by the work of Baltimore-based Addison Wiggin, exec. publisher of Agora Financial, “I.O.U.S.A” somehow makes out deficit, debt and other $$ issues easy to understand. Credit director Patrick Creadon, who made the entertaining crossword doc “Wordplay.”
But also credit the two breakout stars of the flick — U.S. Comptroller David Walker and Tab-drinking economic stalwart Robert Bixby. I’m dubbing them the real superheroes of the movies this year for going on fiscal wake-up national tours (depicted in the film) to tell Americans about the issues.

I won’t overburden you with numbers (plus the film does it in a better way), but our federal debt is nearing $9 trillion and, which covers 67 percent of our annual GDP. How do we get there? There’s history of problems since our nation was founded. What’s sadder is most of the young people interviewed in the movie, who will have to shoulder most of the burden in the coming decades, were relatively clueless about what was going on.

During a Q & A after the movie, Creadon, Wiggin, Walker and Bixby (who had sat behind me the entire movie!), announced the film should hit national theaters by August, just in time for the election. The movie, said Jed Dietz, the festival’s director, was the most popular screening of the day. People were, literally, sitting on the aisles.

It gave me hope that people will want to take in this all-important lesson.

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