THE PROJECTTHE INVOICE: Settling the debt with Black America
For over 250 years, the U.S. government engineered policies that extracted staggering wealth from Black Americans. THE INVOICE investigates this ongoing financial crime, pursues the evidence that proves the debt, and challenges America to finally pay up.
FORMAT
True Crime Documentary, about 80 minutes
STATUS
In production
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER
Susan Lent-Burgess
PRODUCERS / DIRECTORS
Dave Lent and Troy Jones
DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY
Trudy Hutcherson
EDITOR
Erin Lee
SYNOPSIS The longest-running heist in U.S. history.
THE INVOICE traces the criminal paper trail, from slavery to segregation to today’s discriminatory algorithms, revealing how federal policies enabled the plunder of Black labor, land, wages, and opportunities while enriching white citizens and institutions.
Led by an actor in the role of Chief Detective, viewers follow an investigative team of scholars, survivors, and forensic economists who examine the crime scenes and tally the damages. Rather than targeting individuals, the cameras turn toward a more elusive perpetrator: the federal machinery itself. The film positions reparations not as charity but as payment of a long-overdue debt.
HOW THE FILM IS BUILT
Archive
Archival footage paired with stylized dramatizations.
Evidence boards
Timeline animations tracking unlawful enrichment.
Interviews as testimony
Expert witnesses explaining the crime.
Comedy as subversion
Levity that disarms and invites viewers closer.
The invoice
Every chapter ends with an itemized tally of the damages uncovered so far.
STORY BREAKDOWN Six chapters.
One paper trail.
1
The startup from hell
America’s first national enterprise is built on forced labor. Enslaved people become the single largest financial asset in the nation.
1776 TO 18672
The Promised Land: Broken Deals and Missed Opportunities
40 Acres and a Mule, the Homestead Act, the New Deal, the GI Bill. Every chance to repair the harm was blocked.
1865 TO 19453
Old Jim Crow: The Reign of Fear
Segregation and Black massacres enforce economic control while courts look away.
1880 TO 19654
The White Gift Card: Modern Extraction
Overt discrimination becomes coded algorithms and bureaucratic practice. Same blueprint, harder to detect.
1765 TO PRESENT5
The Invoice: The Case for Reparations
The Chief Detective and Investigators assemble and present the case file. This is the prosecution’s closing argument.
6
Closure: The Settlement
What America would look like when Reparations are paid. Or if they are not paid, what suffers when the perpetrator is a government. Until the bill is paid, the case remains open.