Amy Hanauer, Anand Giridharadas, Ann Price, Beverly Edreich, Chuck Collins, Clive Davis, Death and Taxes, DOC NYC, documentaries, Felicia Wong, film festivals, Frank Luntz, Grover Norquist, Harvey Schein, James Bandler, Jimmy Berman, Joy Schein, Justin Schein, Mark Schein, Matthew Desmond, movies, New York City, Paul Krugman, reviews, Robert Edwards, Robert Reich, Yvonne Johnson
November 21, 2024
by Carla Hay
Directed by Justin Schein; co-directed by Robert Edwards
Culture Representation: The documentary film “Death & Taxes” features a predominantly white group of people (with a few African Americans and Asians), who are middle-class or wealthy, discussing the pros and cons of United States estate taxes (also known as “death taxes”) which apply only a small percentage of wealthy people.
Culture Clash: People who support estate taxes say that these taxes benefit everyone in democratic societies, while people who are opposed to estate taxes say that these taxes are unfair discrimination against the wealthiest taxpayers in the United States.
Culture Audience: “Death & Taxes” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in learning how estate taxes affect political systems and wealth distribution, for better or for worse.
“Death & Taxes” gives a competent overview of estate taxes, while admirably showing a balance of supporters and opponents of these taxes. This documentary, directed by Justin Schein, includes his family history as a very personal perspective. As of 2024, federal estate taxes are mandated for a deceased person’s assets that are worth at least $13.61 million at the time of death. At times, “Death & Taxes” seems more like a family biography than a documentary about estate taxes. However, “Death & Taxes (which was co-directed by Robert Edwards) makes the subject matter more relatable to viewers because Justin Schein shares intimate details about how his domineering businessman father Harvey Schein (who was vehemently opposed to estate taxes) affected his family’s perspectives on taxes and economic inequalities
In the United States, federal estate taxes apply to a deceased person’s assets of at least $13.61 million per person or $27.22 million per married couple. This minimum amount has steadily increased over the years—a trend that suggests that less millionaires are required to pay these estate taxes. This trend has gotten praise (mostly from political conservatives) and criticism (mostly from political liberals). Justin Schein makes his viewpoints known early on in the movie when he says that he’s politically liberal on this issue. He thinks estate taxes help lessen financial inequalities between the very rich and the very poor because the taxes go toward resources that can benefit those who need the resources the most.
“Death & Taxes” (which had its world premiere at the 2024 edition of DOC NYC) begins with archival footage filmed in 2003 of Harvey Schein at the family’s country home in Connecticut. In the footage, Harvey talks about how he doesn’t want his assets to be taxed after he dies. “I don’t want to give half of our estate to the federal government,” Harvey says emphatically. (Harvey Schein died in 2008, at the age of 80.)
Justin Schein, who is the voiceover narrator for the documentary, comments wryly in the voiceover: “Welcome to a Schein family meeting. That’s my dad holding forth on his favorite subject: keeping his hard-earned money from the tax man when he dies. It’s not a bad problem to have—as long as you don’t let it drive you crazy. But, unfortunately, it did.”
Justin describes his relationship with his father as “complicated.” They often argued about money and politics. Justin elaborates in a voiceover commentary: “He was the classic self-made man who embodied the American Dream, if there really is such a thing—and I inherited it. And ever since I was a kid, I’ve been trying to figure out what that literal good fortune means for me, my family and my country—especially in this moment when inequality in America has grown dramatically.”
“Death & Taxes” interweaves anecdotes and facts about Harvey’s life with interview commentaries from experts in economics and politics. Born in New York City in 1927, Harvey was raised in a working-class home, where his father Morris was a textile worker. Growing up during the Great Depression made a tremendous impact on Harvey because he developed a lifelong obsession with saving as much money as possible. According to Justin (who was born in 1968), his father Harvey would constantly lecture his children Justin and Mark (born in 1966) about how not to waste money and how to be “frugal.”
Harvey graduated from New York University and served in the Naval Reserve toward the end of World War II. Through a G.I. bill (which the documentary points out was a privilege only open to white men at the time), Harvey received a scholarship to attend and graduate from Harvard University Law School. After law school, Harvey became a hard-driving executive at CBS Records and later at Sony, where he is credited with being a master marketer for the Betamax video machine. Harvey became a multimillionaire because of all of his success in business, even though he made enemies because of his ruthless and unkind way of treating employees and other colleagues.
Several people in the documentary, including Harvey’s ex-wife Joy Schein (the mother of Justin and Mark), describe him in the same the way that she describes him: “charming, funny, difficult and demanding.” Joy, who also grew up in New York City, met Harvey at a party, and she says she was instantly attracted to him because of his confident charisma. Clive Davis, former president of CBS Records, comments on Harvey: “He had one Achilles heel: He had a tendency to be argumentative.” Yvonne Johnson, a former administrative assistant of Harvey’s, has this to say about him: “Everybody knows … he had a brilliant mind but a very difficult personality.”
Justin says that as a child, he thought his father was like a superhero. But Justin—like many other people in Harvey’s life—both admired and feared Harvey. As an adult, Justin says he developed very different opinions from his father about socioeconomic inequalities and wealthy people’s responsibilities in helping underprivileged people. Conflicts over Harvey’s personality and financial obsessions eventually took a toll on his marriage to Joy and led to their divorce.
“Death & Taxes” has a fairly even amount of screen time given to supporters and opponents of estate taxes. Robert Reich—who was U.S. Secretary of Labor from 1993 to 1997, during the administration of President Bill Clinton—believes that estate taxes are essential. Reich comments in the documentary: “If more and more wealth can be generated and provided to heirs without paying any taxes, then we are on the way to a permanent aristocracy in America.”
By contrast, Republican pollster/strategist Frank Luntz believes that estate taxes are a form of tax discrimination. He thinks estate taxes should be abolished and doesn’t believe that the wealthiest U.S. taxpayers should get these additional taxes imposed on them. Luntz is a firm believer in the “trickle-down economics” policies (made famous by President Ronald Reagan) which touts that wealth is better distributed through charities and consumer spending, rather than higher taxes for the wealthy.
Other people interviewed in “Death & Taxes” include Princeton University sociologist Matthew Desmond, Roosevelt Institute president/CEO Felicia Wong, New School economist Darrick Hamilton, Americans for Tax Reform founder Grover Norquist, Institute for Policy Studies senior scholar Chuck Collins, economist Ann Price, Institute on Tax and Economic Policy Amy Hanauer, New York Times columnist/economist Paul Krugman, ProPublica reporter James Bandler, Justin Schein’s cousin Beverly Edreich, Justin Schein’s brother Mark Schein, New York University finance professor Jimmy Berman, and “Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World” author/journalist Anand Giridharadas.
“Death & Taxes” director Schein also gets his wife Eden Wurmfeld to comment. She says it’s “tricky” to to do the documentary without “making it look like some poor little rich white boy story with the tiniest violin.” Wurmfeld isn’t wrong because “Death & Taxes” does come across as a “rich guilt” documentary from a filmmaker with earnest intentions in better understanding how his wealth and privilege can help those in society who aren’t wealthy or privileged. Whether or not estate taxes are a correct way to try to distribute wealth will remain an ongoing debate that “Death & Taxes” doesn’t try to resolve but instead takes a very humanistic and personal approach that makes these issues easier for the average viewer to understand.