A new film opens in the­aters Novem­ber 13th that asks the ques­tion if the world has so much, why is there so much poverty? The film “The End of Poverty” is pro­duced by Cin­ema Libre Stu­dios. You can learn more about the film through it’s very own blog. What fol­lows in this post is a press release about the film, as well as the film’s trailer.

After pre­mier­ing at Crit­ics’ Week dur­ing the Cannes Film Fes­ti­val and sub­se­quently screen­ing at twenty-five inter­na­tional film fes­ti­vals, a pow­er­ful new fea­ture length doc­u­men­tary that has been impress­ing crit­ics and eco­nomic jus­tice activists world­wide, will be released nation­wide start­ing in New York (at Vil­lage East Cin­ema) on Novem­ber 13, 2009, fol­lowed by Los Ange­les on Novem­ber 25, 2009 (at Laemmle’s Sun­set 5) with a plat­form release to follow.

Award-winning actor and activist, Mar­tin Sheen, pro­vides the nar­ra­tion for THE END OF POVERTY?, directed by Philippe Diaz, which 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.  The film was pro­duced in asso­ci­a­tion with the New York based non-profit, Robert Schalken­bach Foun­da­tion, and will be dis­trib­uted by Cin­ema Libre Studio.

“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.” says film­maker Diaz. “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. “

Filmed in the slums of Africa to the bar­rios of Latin Amer­ica, THE END OF POVERTY? explores how the true causes of poverty stem from actions taken dur­ing and since colo­nial times to per­pet­u­ate exploita­tion:  first by forc­ing peo­ple from their land and their access to nat­ural resources, then through unfair trade, debt repay­ment and unjust taxes on labor and con­sump­tion.  This sys­tem was care­fully built and main­tained by free mar­ket poli­cies, resource monop­o­lies and struc­tural adjust­ment pro­grams by the World Bank, the IMF and other inter­na­tional finan­cial institutions.

The doc­u­men­tary fea­tures:  Nobel prize win­ners in eco­nom­ics Amartya Sen and Joseph Stiglitz; expert 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”); gov­ern­ment min­is­ters such as Bolivia’s Vice Pres­i­dent Alvaro Gar­cia Lin­era, and lead­ers of social move­ments in Bolivia, Brazil, Venezuela, Kenya and Tanzania.

The film has since been embraced by activists and non-governmental orga­ni­za­tions (NGOs) world­wide for its ‘direct talk’ about the role of debt, free trade, and neo-liberal poli­cies and poverty.  Groups includ­ing: Amnesty UK, ATTAC (Asso­ci­a­tion for the Tax­a­tion of Finan­cial Trans­ac­tions to Aid Cit­i­zens), CADTM (Com­mit­tee for the Abo­li­tion of the Third World Debt), Global Call to Action against Poverty (GCAP), Inter­Ac­tion, Jubilee Debt Cam­paign, Make Poverty His­tory, Tax Jus­tice Net­work, Transna­tional Insti­tute, and the UN Mil­len­nium Cam­paign, shared the film with thou­sands of activists, edu­ca­tors and politi­cians dur­ing the “Week of Action Against Poverty” and dur­ing the Stand Up Take Action events this past October.

Syn­op­sis:

The End of Poverty? is a dar­ing, thought-provoking and very timely doc­u­men­tary by award-winning film­maker, Philippe Diaz, 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.

Pro­duced by Cin­ema Libre Stu­dio with the Robert Schalken­bach Foun­da­tion, 104mins, 2008, USA, doc­u­men­tary in Eng­lish, Span­ish, and French with Eng­lish Subtitles.

More infor­ma­tion as well as trailer, clips and images for down­load are avail­able at www.TheEndofPoverty.com.

About Cin­ema Libre Stu­dio:
Cin­ema Libre Stu­dio has been a leader in the dis­tri­b­u­tion social issue films that tackle timely issues.  The com­pany is a haven for inde­pen­dent film­mak­ers offer­ing one-stop shop­ping for pro­duc­tion and dis­tri­b­u­tion. Head­quar­tered in Los Ange­les, the com­pany is best known for dis­trib­ut­ing social-issue doc­ume­men­taires that include: Out­foxed, Uncov­ered, WMD: Weapon’s of Mass Decep­tion, Dar­fur Diaries, The Future of Food, A River of Waste, and Desert Bayou and The Beau­ti­ful Truth.  The com­pany has recently released the films of French auteur Jean-Jacques Beineix and has part­nered with Iran­ian direc­tor Masoud Jafari Jozani to bring the first film crew to shoot in US since the Iran­ian rev­o­lu­tion. For more infor­ma­tion, please visit www.cinemalibrestudio.com.
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Media Con­tact:                                                                                                                         
Pub­li­cist                                              
Cin­ema Libre Stu­dio
8328 De Soto Avenue
Canoga Park, CA  91304                              
Ph: (818) 349‑8822
Press@cinemalibrestudio.com

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