Cleveland vs. Wall Street

In January 2008 Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson took aim at Wall Street with a lawsuit against 21 major investment banks, which he said have created a public nuisance by enabling the subprime lending and foreclosure crisis in the city. The suit contends that the companies' irresponsible home loans resulted in widespread defaults, depleting the city's tax base and leaving neighborhoods in ruins. When Wall Street lawyers blocked attempts to go to court, Swiss director Jean-Stéphane Bron staged an elaborate mock trial, which he filmed with many of the players involved. The result, CLEVELAND VS. WALL STREET, premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. Joshua Cohen leads a team of lawyers assisting the city, with Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Thomas J. Pokorny and defense lawyer Keith Fisher playing themselves. Barbara Anderson, former treasurer of Empowering and Strengthening Ohio's People, makes an impassioned appearance. Witnesses tell heart-wrenching stories of evictions and foreclosures, demonstrating that the case (and the American legal system) is very complicated. As Cleveland Scene put it, even though no grandma from Brookpark will probably ever get the chance to kick a Goldman Sachs employee in the shins, at least in this movie Cleveland gets a shot at retribution. –B.B.