The End of Poverty?

An Exploration of World Poverty

VERY VERY SAD SITUATION. The movie was okay but I basically did not learn anything new since I am an avid researcher. The only thing I can say is that I believe in God and we must cling to what scripture has to say about success if we desire it on an individual basis. Then we are in position to do good for those who want a better life. We must refuse brainwashing and refuse to become corrupted once we understand life.

Raises many important questions about the nature of development and its historic origins... Highlights political and economic objectives that reinforce forms of exploitation and profit maximisation; but undermine the capabilities of those in the South and their control over resources and land.

This video is super helpful and humbling. It's a harsh reality check of the costs of the comforts we enjoy in The West. Our comfort is at the price of other's discomfort. This film is tastefully done from a diverse range of global voices, rather than just upper white middle class folks. It shows the effects of our current economic system, Neoliberalism, and offers some harsh realities that we need to deal with as a nation. We need to repent of our ancestors wrongs, and take responsibility for the unjust system our global economy operates in today. I'm grateful for this insightful film.

The form of the documentary was of particular importance to me, not as much as the content of course, but we were going with a mission to change people's perception of the true causes of poverty. It was essential nevertheless because I saw too many documentaries ruined by their lack of form or too much of it. The stars of the film had to be the poor. And I knew that I couldn’t turn such a devastating subject into "cinema." I would therefore have to refrain from using zooms and any other effects unless they were absolutely necessary to the context of the scene. The camera would be mostly fixed on a tripod or handheld when necessary. I would create a totally different feel for the experts who would be interviewed in natural settings: it is easier to fight poverty from a comfortable office in a university or an international organization – which doesn't diminish the importance of what these experts who do – but it is another to live it on a day-to-day basis. To wake up hungry everyday without knowing where you can find enough money during the day to feed your family is simply not the same thing.

Our experience in working with these poor people brought us to a level of understanding I never thought possible. Many of them had an understanding of their situations and of its causes that most experts would find accurate beyond belief. But the experts opened our minds in a no less interesting way. We started shooting in 2006 and most of the experts predicted an imminent financial crisis which would engulf the world, while most of our politicians and our media were glorifying the prowess of capitalism. One of the experts, Serge Latouche, put it in very simple words: Today 20% of the planet uses more than 80% of its resources. Moreover, every year we are consuming 30% more than what the planet can regenerate, therefore digging a giant hole under our feet and making it bigger every year. And of course, these resources come primarily from the countries of the (global) South. And the most condemning part is that in order to maintain our lifestyle in the North, we have to keep these countries at a level of dire poverty. Even worse, because the world's population continues to increase in order to maintain our lifestyle we have to plunge more and more people into poverty every year. Latouche makes the point that if everybody had the same lifestyle as the people in North America, we would need six planets.