Abacus: Small Enough to Jail

The only bank in the United States to face criminal charges after the 2008 financial crisis was a small family institution in Manhattan's Chinatown: Abacus Federal Savings, somewhere around the two thousand five hundredth largest bank in the country, and the place an immigrant community went for a mortgage. Steve James spends the film beside the Sung family who founded it. The father trained as a lawyer, his daughters work in the business, and the case drags on for five years. The most startling image is the chain of employees led down a courthouse corridor linked together before trial, a procedure the prosecution considered necessary and the family read as theatre. The question it asks is simple and hard to shake: why was this bank prosecuted while the institutions that caused the crisis were not. The charges came from the Manhattan district attorney, and the defence argued the choice was a racial one. Its weakness is proximity. The film stands very close to the family and gives the prosecution's reasoning less room than it needs. Who it is for: viewers who follow documentaries about finance and justice. Who it is not for: anyone expecting balance.