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When Patrick Creadon and David Earnhardt dove into their filmmaking careers, they barely thought about the growing tensions in our red-blue nation.

Then, headlines and history got in the way. And they got hooked.

Earnhardt made "Uncounted," a documentary about the election fraud of the 2004 presidential election, and unveiled a disturbing portrait of our malfunctioning democracy.

Creadon made "I.O.U.S.A.," a documentary on our country's fiscal irresponsibility that's incredibly entertaining.

That's right. Entertaining. But you have to remember: Creadon's first documentary, "Wordplay," made the quirky world of crossword puzzles fun.

And Creadon knows the entertaining terrain of the eccentric and bizarre. He once worked behind the camera for such blink-and-miss TV shows as "Blind Date" and "Maxim Hot 100."

Neither film is what I'd call "gotcha cinema." That's Michael Moore. But Earnhardt and Creadon walk in Moore's footsteps in that they use the camera lens to educate viewers about the perils we face.

Their cinematic viewpoints are particularly prescient in this election year, the most important of a generation. And the best part? Both films are coming to our backyard.

"I.O.U.S.A." will premiere next week at Winston-Salem's RiverRun International Film Festival. If you catch it, it'll remind you of macroeconomics 101 — without the trauma.

Unlike that class back in college, you won't fall asleep. It'll make your head swim. Remember this number: $9.2 trillion.

That's a lot of zeroes. As of January, that's what we owe as a country. By 2050, it's estimated to reach $50 trillion. I'm just glad there's no global repo man.

But here's what will make you feel as helpless as a trucker at a gas pump. That figure will cost every single American — you and me — $30,433. By the way, our deficit goes up $86 million every 80 minutes.

So, if you're a parent — and if this doesn't stop — imagine what kind of country our kids will face.

Interested? Creadon sure was.

He started work on "I.O.U.S.A." after reading the book "Empire of Debt." That was November 2006. Now Creadon feels as if he could breeze through any MBA class. But that's not all.

"I feel more like a grown-up," Creadon says from his office in Los Angeles. "I'm 40 years old, I have three kids, and my wife and I work together, and I always felt that the really smart, sophisticated people in Washington had a handle on this issue, and the truth is, that's not happening."

"I.O.U.S.A." comes off as casual as a bar conversation. I love the PowerPoint presentation of the rolling penny and how two stat-studded geeks — nationally known economists David Walker and Robert Bixby — come across like rock stars.

But the real star is our own country — and the financial quicksand we're in.

It'll definitely shake you awake. So will "Uncounted," which will be shown at 7:30 tonight at Carousel Luxury Cinemas.

Earnhardt will be there, and he'll answer questions. He is a Greensboro native, a graduate of Grimsley.

But what intrigues me will be the 64-year-old woman expected to be at the showing tonight.

She'll be standing behind a table in the lobby, hawking DVDs of "Uncounted," after months of spreading the word about Earnhardt's Greensboro screening across his hometown.

She's Janice Sullivan, and she met Earnhardt 41 years ago. She was his sixth-grade teacher at Lindley Elementary, and in that second-floor classroom by the stairwell, she encouraged him to think for himself.

He still heeds that lesson today. Especially in "Uncounted."

"She was teaching me the importance of looking at things and raising questions instead of following the herd," says Earnhardt, now 53. "And that's the kind of person that helps you understand."

Contact Jeri Rowe at 373-7374 or jeri.rowe@news-record.com