A DOCUMENTARY FROM TRUDAT PRODUCTIONSBefore the racial wealth gap, there were financial crimes.
THE INVOICE is a true crime investigation of 250 years of wealth extraction from Black Americans for the benefit of white Americans — exposing the longest-running heist in U.S. history. We follow the money trail, name what was taken, what continues to be taken, and explore how we can settle the debt.
Like any crime investigation, the INVOICE follows the money.
THE CASE 01
The Crimes
Slavery, segregation, theft of land, wages, and opportunity, Black massacres, mass incarceration, Redlining and other discriminatory practices. Every opportunity to repair is blocked.
02
The cover-up
Redlining, sentencing, discriminatory algorithms. The same blueprint, polished and automated, still moving wealth in one direction today.
03
The Bill
Every chapter ends with an itemized invoice. Whistleblowers, scholars, survivors and forensic economists tally what was taken and what it is worth now.
WHY WE ARE MAKING THE FILM“Sometimes I imagine our team and supporters as a dissident group of crew members on the Titanic, determined to get the others to join our conversation about icebergs.”
DAVE LENT, CO-PRODUCER AND DIRECTOR
STATUS OF THE PROJECT In production.
Trailer & Extended trailer completed.
Fundraising ongoing to complete production.Interviews completed with historian Calvin Schermerhorn, Anne Price of the Maven Collaborative, Richard America, author and economist, and Tracie McMillan, author of The White Bonus.
THE INVOICE has received grants from the Foundation for Systemic Change and the Berkeley Film Foundation.
Where your contribution goes
Continuing production
Shoot additional interviews, acquire archival footage, and produce the dramatizations and evidence boards described in the treatment.Building the audience
Instagram, YouTube and the newsletter, so the film has people waiting for it.Community events
Screenings to inspire community conversations about how to settle this controversial debt.