Former LHS Graduate Producing Student Debt Documentary

When it comes to tackling the student loan crisis in the United States, there is no person more fitting to cut up the documentary than recent college graduate Casey LaMarca.

With your help, he can.

The 24-year-old filmmaker has launched a Kickstarter page for his new project – Debt U: The Student Loan Documentary. He needs $40,000 to turn the 10-minute preview he has produced into a larger feature.

"It's really going to be a student loan culture film and kind of what's happening in our generation," LaMarca said.

Using Kickstarter allows LaMarca to get funding from those who truly care about the issue. While difficult, he says that crowd funding is a huge phenomenon in this country, and he is excited to market the project.

In the preview, LaMarca travels to Chesapeake, VA, where he speaks with Angela Smith and her family. Smith's son Donte was shot and killed in a club on July 5, 2008 at the age of 25.

At the time of his death, Donte's original debt to The First Marblehead Corporation, a private loan provider, was $30,000. The video explains that his family now owes $41,000 and growing, with the loan in Angela's husband's name.

In the video, Donte's mother pleads with parents to understand what they are getting their children into with student loans.

LaMarca wants to tell similar stories of heartbreak involving the victims of student loan debt.

For example, he wants to fly to Las Vegas to learn the reasons why students are getting into stripping and prostitution to pay off their debt.

LaMarca also hopes to speak with folks in Canada to talk about why their tuition costs are so much lower.

In the preview, LaMarca also spends time at Pinkerton Academy in Derry, attending a college fair to learn how ill-prepared some of the kids are to deal with loan payments.

"You don't think about it," he said of the kids. "Your mind can't process that $140,000 in debt is a house, it's a mortgage payment. "This idea of entitlement came from the way we were raised. Individualism became a huge thing. Everything was 'you're special. You can be the one. You can do anything. Don't let anybody stop you. Don't worry about money. This and that. This and that."

After graduating Londonderry High School in 2006, LaMarca has taken quite the journey.

Starting at the University of New Hampshire, he moved to Suffolk University and eventually to Emerson College, earning his degree in four years and with it the financial burden of $1,500 per month in loan payments.

Now he lives in Brooklyn, but back home, he has watched his mom and grandparents suffer from the $250,000 in debt from him and his brother.

His family was forced to sell their home on Crosby Lane, which is also showcased in the beginning of the documentary.

I got the word officially that the house had to go, we had the conversation, and they (my family) were so kind of bleak about it," LaMarca said. "We moved in April but I found out about the legit move a couple of months before."

Now his mom and grandparents live in a 55-plus community on Mammoth Road Road. They are adjusting to the new living situation after dealing with a year of uncertainty.

In New York, the two LaMarca brothers lived together for two years, trying to get their production company "LaMarcable Productions" off the ground.

The two took anything they could get their hands on, from producing a couple of web series pilots to creating music videos.

He now has to balance his entrepreneurial efforts with a full-time job at CBS New York, where he works in an office at Rockefeller Center.

Before that, he worked full-time for a video production company, a job he got through a family connection. When the company began to struggle, his student loans became a big factor.

It wasn't until a conversation with Aryn Quinn, his 46-year-old cousin and founder of the Beauty Cares non-profit in New York, that LaMarca decided to create Debt U.

Now Quinn is helping LaMarca complete his project. Also helping out on Debt U is Sara Deviney, a 2008 graduate of LHS who moved to New York City earlier this year.

While $40,000 isn't a lot for a full-length documentary, the smaller budget allows for quicker production. LaMarca hopes to be done filming in October or November with a release in early 2014.

Also on board with the project is O'Neil Cinemas, which has locations in Londonderry and Epping. The two movie theaters plan on showing the completed documentary.

To learn more about Debt U, visit the Kickstarter page here. You can also contribute to the project from Kickstarter.

As of Monday, LaMarca had received 58 backers to the project for a total of $3,633. The deadline is July 15 to donate.