The Nation Is Bankrupt

The Nation Is Bankrupt tells the story of the financial crisis through the fictional love letters of JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon.

The videos, Before covers a seminal weekend at the Federal Reserve in September 2008 and While covers the decade following it, are in part an alternative and more libidinal history of the financial crisis, and an exploration of the metaphoric creep of neoliberalism into all areas of life. Not quite fiction and not quite satire, the letters are a cry in the dark from an insular world that continues to bring us all to the brink of financial, physical and moral ruin.

While The Nation Went Bankrupt (2009-2015)

Letter To Judy

On September 15, 2015 Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JP Morgan Chase, becomes a billionaire. He writes a letter to his wife Judy, explaining all the reasons they deserve it.

Screenings

Simultan Festival XV: The Unstable State of Things, Timișoara, Romania, September 11-19, 2021

Before The Nation Went Bankrupt (September 2008)

Before The Nation Went Bankrupt from nathanielsullivan on Vimeo.

Before The Nation Went Bankrupt, 2016, HD Video, 37 minutes

September 2008. The economy is in ruins, an unprecedented boom is over. The CEOs of the biggest banks have been summoned to the Federal Reserve, in lower Manhattan, for an entire weekend. Their task: to solve the world economy and to rewrite the rules of finance. Not much is known about what happened that weekend at the Federal Reserve. Until now.

Screenings

Economia, Eindhoven, NE April 28-30, 2017

Debt+ , Flux Factory, Queens, NY. June 3, 24, 2016

Before The Nation Went Bankrupt Episodes

Letter To Lover #1

Saturday morning, September 13th 2008. The economy is in ruins, an unprecedented boom is over. The CEOs of the biggest banks have been summoned to the Federal Reserve, in lower Manhattan, for an entire weekend. Their task: to solve the world economy and to re-write the rules of finance. Not much is known about what happened that weekend at the Federal Reserve. Until now. In between meetings, Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JP Morgan Chase, writes a letter to his younger lover. This is that letter.

Screenings

Index Art Center, Newark, NJ April 22, 2017

Letter To Lover #2

Saturday morning, September 13th 2008. Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JP Morgan Chase, tries to come up with a metaphor for late capitalism. He writes a letter to a colleague/lover. This is that letter.

Screenings

Digital BigScreen Trbovje, Solvenia, September 14-16 2017

Letter To Bill Winters

Monday Morning, September 15th 2008. The economy is in ruins, an unprecedented boom is over. The CEOs of the biggest banks had just been summoned to the Federal Reserve, in lower Manhattan, for an entire weekend. Their task: to solve the world economy and to re-write the rules of finance. Not much is known about what happened that weekend at the Federal Reserve. Until now. On Monday morning, Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JP Morgan Chase, has a vision of what the future economy will look like. While on his helicopter ride into work that morning, Dimon writes a letter to William Winters, his Head of Investment Banking at JPMC. This is that letter.

Monday Morning, September 15th 2008. Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JP Morgan Chase, has a vision of what the future economy will look like. While on his helicopter ride into work that morning, Dimon writes a letter to William Winters, his Head of Investment Banking at JPMC. This is that letter.

Screenings

Ojo De Agua Film Festival, Guanajuato, Mexico, October 31, 2020

Barcelona Short Film & Video Festival, Barcelona, Spain, October 23-30, 2020

Code+ Festival 2018, Buenos Aires, Argentina, November 16-17, 2018

Now & After International Video Art Festival, Moscow, Russia, February 7-16, 2018

Transmission Video Art Festival, July 20-23, 2017

UND#9,Dragonenkaserne Karlsruhe, Germany
Komuna//Warszawa, Warszawa, Poland
Documenta 14, KMMN Kulturbahnhof, Kassel Germany