SALLIE MAE NOT: Exposing America’s Student Loan Scam, episode one of SCARED TO DEBT, a six-part documentary series by Michael Camoin, won the Audience Choice Award at the 2021 Whistleblower Summit and Film Festival at The Pillar Awards ceremony held on July 30th. The Pillar is awarded to politicians, community activists, and journalists—including documentary filmmakers, and given on National Whistleblowers Appreciation Day.
SALLIE MAE NOT: Exposing America’s Student Loan Scam is the untold story of how the US government gutted student loans of consumer protections such as bankruptcy and statutes of limitations leading to the skyrocketing cost of tuition and indenturing millions, especially women and people of color, into debt for decades through a predatory lending system. The film highlights the US history of student loans and sheds light on how corruption set in making student loans more profitable when in default. Seen throughout the series are borrowers’ stories of debilitating debt intertwined with whistleblowers who share insider information on the Board of Education, Sallie Mae, Wall Street, and the US government’s role in the student loan debt crisis facing 45 million Americans in $1.8 Trillion debt.
