Bill Moyers speaks to Jacob Kornbluth, director of Inequality for All, a new documentary film about how America’s widening income gap is a threat — not only to the viability of our workforce, but also to the foundations of our democracy. The film features economic analyst and former Clinton cabinet member Robert Reich, who uses humor and facts to explain why the consolidation of wealth into the hands of few affects all Americans today.

Kornbluth tells Moyers that his working class roots shaped his decision to make the film: “My friends knew [I was poor] because I got those free lunches in the classroom,” he says. His mother raised a family of four on a teaching salary that, at times, was as low as $9,000 a year. Kornbluth says with Inequality for All he wanted to gain a deeper understanding of the issues from his childhood while elevating the conversation beyond party lines and partisan bickering. “Although [inequality] is a deeply moral question, the argument in the film is that it’s an economic one as well,” he says.

The film, financed in part using the crowd-funding platform Kickstarter, premiers September 27, 2013, in theaters across the country. See why Bill Moyers is calling Inequality for All a “marvelous, informative, exhilarating, fun and frightening film.”