Politics and Film: What caused my interest in economics?

As someone who has the opportunity to vote in the 2016 election, I feel that trying my best to understanding Economics (even if in just a basic way) is imperative.  Despite the fact that many Americans have low confidence in their political efficacy, I think it's important to be as informed as you can be when it comes to politics. Over the past several months, I have watched snippets of almost every debate. I sound like kind of a dork, but attempting to understand the the differences in economic policies among the candidates has been kind of fun. For example, tonight I am watching the GOP debate while I am writing this and John Kasich just sort of agreed with something Bernie Sanders (a Democrat) believes. The moderator had asked him about the idea of Bernie in the White House, and while he labelled him as "unelectable" due his tax plan, Kasich basically agreed with Bernie on the idea that wages need to increase in order to not just get people back on their feet, but keep them there. Although Kasich himself is lagging in the polls, I admire the fact that he has stuck to his principals rather than appease the entirety of the GOP (this is not me endorsing him though just FYI y'all :P).
Even though I had already decided that I was going to take this class at that point, I became more anxious/excited about taking it while watching The Big Short over break with my family. For my mom and dad--who were both hired at J.P. Morgan Chase in 2008--the movie hit close to home. At that time, my dad worked in Mortgage Default Department at Chase and had an incredibly stressful job. I was only 10 years old at the time, and to be honest I did not fully understand the repercussions of the recession.  Seeing The Big Short over break scared me about what the effects misuse and abuse of economic power could do to a system, but also fascinated me. I came into the movie unsure if I would really enjoy it, and walked out with less of a definitive opinion and more of just a curiosity about our economic system.
In the end, I hope to leave this class with a greater understanding of some of the factors that caused the recession, the ability to understand the challenges that one faces when attempting to create economic change (ex. how would we change the minimum wage), and eventually, form my own concrete and well supported economic beliefs.