From mortgages, to payday loans, to student debt, to moral obligations, how does debt shape our lives and our society? And how can we overcome it? These questions are being posed as part of a film and discussion series being held at the new Halifax Central Library this winter, titled “Debt: our common problem.” The series is being co-presented by Halifax’s Radical Imagination Project and the Halifax branch of Cinema Politica . The following is an interview with event organizer Max Haiven, co-director of the Radical Imagination Project and Assistant Professor in the Division of Art History and Critical Studies at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design. He is author of Crises of Imagination, Crises of Power (2014), The Radical Imagination (with Alex Khasnabish, 2014) and Cultures of Financialization (2014).