Written and directed by James Scurlock, the film and book use interviews with creditors, debtors, academics, and others to illustrate its story.

The film was released in movie theaters in select cities in the United States in March 2007 through Magnolia Pictures.

The DVD was released nationally on June 7, 2007, in the joint effort of Magnolia Pictures and Red Envelope Entertainment (a division of Netflix).

Scurlock's purpose for the film and book was to raise awareness of how credit and lending issues are affecting society.

[1] The main premises of the documentary and book are that banks and other creditors deliberately market to people who are more likely to have problems paying and that the creditors benefit from connections to government, the debt collection industry, and from lawmaker apathy.