Home > Outreach

FILM LIBRARY: POVERTY

9 Star Hotel
by Ido Haar

"9 Star Hotel" documents the lives of a group of young Palestinian men working illegally as construction laborers in the Israeli city of Modi'in. Caught between Israeli security laws and a Palestinian Authority they see as having failed them, they work for Israeli contractors by day while hiding from police by night. Like youths everywhere, they pass their idle hours talking about love, marriage and future hopes. Israeli filmmaker Ido Haar has crafted a powerful vérité film that illuminates the plight of young men questioning their own culture while struggling to survive in the midst of bitter conflict.

Work with this film:
Watch the Full Film | Borrow a DVD & Host a Screening | Buy the Film | Visit P.O.V. Film Website

Downloadable materials:
Discussion Guide | Further Reading List | Lesson Plan

The Boys of Baraka
by Heidi Ewing, Rachel Grady

African-American boys have a very high chance of being incarcerated or killed before they reach adulthood. In Baltimore, one of the country's most poverty-stricken cities for inner-city residents, the Baraka School project was founded to break the cycle of violence through an innovative education program that literally removed young boys from low-performing public schools and unstable home environments. The Boys of Baraka follows four boys as they travel with their classmates to rural Kenya in East Africa, where a teacher-student ratio of one to five, a strict disciplinary program and a comprehensive curriculum form the core of an extraordinary new journey in their transformation to men. Winner of an NAACP Image Award. A co-presentation with the Independent Television Service (ITVS). Produced in association with American Documentary | P.O.V.

Work with this film:
Borrow a DVD & Host a Screening | Buy the Film | Visit P.O.V. Film Website

Downloadable materials:
Discussion Guide | Further Reading List | Lesson Plan

Critical Condition
by Roger Weisberg

What happens if you fall sick and are one of 47 million people in America without health insurance? "Critical Condition" by Roger Weisberg ("Waging a Living," P.O.V. 2006) puts a human face on the nation's growing health care crisis by capturing the harrowing struggles of four critically ill Americans who discover that being uninsured can cost them their jobs, health, home, savings, even their lives. Filmed in vérité style, "Critical Condition" offers a moving and invaluable expose at a time when the nation is debating how to extend health insurance to all Americans. A production of Public Policy Productions in association with Thirteen/WNET New York and American Documentary | P.O.V.

Work with this film:
Borrow a DVD & Host a Screening | Buy the Film | Visit P.O.V. Film Website

Libby, Montana
by Drury Gunn Carr and Doug Hawes-Davis

Nestled below the rugged peaks of the Northern Rockies in Montana — as iconic a representation of America's "purple mountain majesties" as one can find — lies the worst case of community-wide exposure to a toxic substance in U.S. history. In the small town of Libby, many hundreds of people are sick or have already died from asbestos exposure. "Libby, Montana" takes a long working day's journey into a blue-collar community, and finds a different reality — one where the American Dream exacts a terrible price.

Work with this film:
Borrow a DVD & Host a Screening | Buy the Film | Visit P.O.V. Film Website

Downloadable materials:
Discussion Guide | Further Reading List | Lesson Plan

Life And Debt
by Stephanie Black

Jamaica — land of sea, sand and sun. And a prime example of the impact economic globalization can have on a developing country. Using conventional and unconventional documentary techniques, this searing film dissects the "mechanism of debt" that is destroying local agriculture and industry while substituting sweat-shops and cheap imports. Life and Debt is an unapologetic look at the "new world order," from the point of view of Jamaican workers, farmers, government and policy officials who see the reality of globalization from the ground up.

This film is not currently available in our free lending library.

Work with this film:
Buy the Film | Visit P.O.V. Film Website

Downloadable materials:
Further Reading List

Love & Diane
by Jennifer Dworkin

"Love & Diane" is a frank and astonishingly intimate real-life drama of a mother and daughter desperate for love and forgiveness, but caught in a devastating cycle. During the 1980's, a crack cocaine epidemic ravaged many impoverished inner city neighborhoods. As parents like Diane succumbed to addiction, a generation of children like Love entered the foster care system. Shot over ten years, the film centers on Love and Diane after the family is reunited and is struggling to reconnect. Now eighteen and a mother herself, Love must reconcile her anger and confront the ways in which her mother's past mistakes haunt her life. Diane, in turn, makes new choices for herself, seeking to break the treadmill of addiction and poverty. Powerful and immediate, "Love & Diane" is an epic film that shatters stereotypes and offers hope amidst seemingly impossible odds. An Independent Television Service (ITVS) co-presentation.

This film is not currently available in our free lending library.

Work with this film:
Buy the Film | Visit P.O.V. Film Website

Downloadable materials:
Discussion Guide | Lesson Plan

Omar & Pete
by Tod Lending

Omar and Pete are determined to change their lives. Both have been in and out of prison for more than 30 years — never out longer than six months. This intimate and penetrating film follows these two longtime African-American friends after what they hope will be their final release. Their lives take divergent paths in their native Baltimore as one wrestles with addiction and fear while the other finds success and freedom through helping others. With extraordinary cooperation from Maryland's innovative reentry programs — many run by former drug addicts and convicts themselves — "Omar & Pete" also provides a rare glimpse into an intense and very personal web of support.

Work with this film:
Borrow a DVD & Host a Screening | Buy the Film | Visit P.O.V. Film Website

Downloadable materials:
Discussion Guide | Further Reading List

Revolution '67
by Marylou Tibaldo-Bongiorno

"Revolution '67" is an illuminating account of events too often relegated to footnotes in U.S. history — the black urban rebellions of the 1960s. Focusing on the six-day Newark, New Jersey outbreak in mid-July, "Revolution '67" reveals how the disturbance began as spontaneous revolts against poverty and police brutality and ended as fateful milestones in America's struggles over race and economic justice. Voices from across the spectrum — activists Tom Hayden and Amiri Baraka, journalist Bob Herbert, Mayor Sharpe James and other officials, National Guardsmen and Newark citizens — recall lessons as hard-earned then as they have been easy to neglect since. A co-production with the Independent Television Service (ITVS), in association with WSKG.

Work with this film:
Borrow a DVD & Host a Screening | Buy the Film | Visit P.O.V. Film Website

Downloadable materials:
Discussion Guide | Further Reading List | Lesson Plan

Take It From Me
by Emily Abt

"Take It From Me" is truly reality programming. As shown in the experiences of several women and their families, the new welfare system, with its recent controversial reforms, may make it easier to ignore rather than confront the complexities of poverty amidst plentitude. Quietly powerful, the film offers a vivid portrait of resilience set against the daunting reality of being poor. In doing so, it deeply recognizes the humanity of those most vulnerable of Americans.

This film is not currently available in our free lending library.

Work with this film:
Buy the Film | Visit P.O.V. Film Website

Downloadable materials:
Further Reading List

Waging a Living
by Roger Weisberg

The term "working poor" should be an oxymoron. If you work full time, you should not be poor, but more than 30 million Americans — one in four workers — are stuck in jobs that do not pay the basics for a decent life. "Waging a Living" chronicles the day-to-day battles of four low-wage earners fighting to lift their families out of poverty.

Work with this film:
Borrow a DVD & Host a Screening | Buy the Film | Visit P.O.V. Film Website

Downloadable materials:
Discussion Guide | Further Reading List | Lesson Plan

TOP OF PAGE