Philippe Diaz's documentary The End of Poverty?, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival's Critics’ Week sidebar and has been screened at more than two dozen international film festivals, will be released nationwide by Cinema Libre starting in New York City on November 13 (at the Village East Cinema), followed by Los Angeles on November 25 (at the Laemmle Sunset 5 and Culver Plaza Theaters), with a platform release to follow including runs in Seattle, Portland, and Austin, and later in Boston, San Francisco, Washington DC, Philadelphia, and Atlanta.
"Most of the experts interviewed in the film had predicted the current economic crisis more than two years ago, when we started to film, explaining that a system based on a neoliberal policies and the fraudulent trickle-down theory can only collapse one day or another," Diaz is quoted as saying in the film's press release. "It is great that Michael Moore is attacking the bankers and the financial establishment in his new film, but the end of greed on Wall Street will not end poverty in the world. The problem is much deeper than that; it is centuries old. Our economic system since colonial times requires cheap labor and cheap resources from the global South to succeed and to finance our lifestyle in the North. Without changing that we will never alleviate poverty."
Martin Sheen provides the narration for The End of Poverty?, which, as per the release, "connects the dots from colonialism to modern times in an indictment of the creation of the free market system, the system now blamed for the worst global recession in decades. … [Thus] revealing that poverty is not an accident. It began with military conquest, slavery and colonization that resulted in the seizure of land, minerals and forced labor. Today, global poverty has reached new levels because of unfair debt, trade and tax policies — in other words, wealthy countries exploiting the weaknesses of poor, developing countries such that today 20% of the planet's population uses 80% of its resources and consumes 30% more than the planet can regenerate."
The documentary features Nobel prize winners in economics Amartya Sen (above) and Joseph Stiglitz; authors Susan George (Another World Is Possible If), Eric Toussaint (The World Bank: A Never Ending Coup d’Etat), John Perkins (Confessions of an Economic Hit Man), Chalmers Johnson (Nemesis: The Last Days of the America Republic), Brookings Institute fellow and author William Easterly (White Man’s Burden); Bolivia’s vice president Alvaro Garcia Linera, and leaders of social movements in Bolivia, Brazil, Venezuela, Kenya, and Tanzania.
Photos: Courtesy Cinema Libre
The End of Poverty? is a startling documentary that brings comprehension to the origin of global poverty. I was amazed at how we have arrived at the current situation around the globe.