OK, but on a serious note, it isn’t just the French filmmaker Philippe Diaz who is looking for your support. He projects that the livelihood of the world’s population rests in the palms of a select few.

“Today, we have to realize that 17,000 to 18,000 children die every day because of poverty,” relays a very passionate Diaz who says every word with the utmost enthusiasm and conviction. “They die because of us. It is important to realize that it isn’t a political issue or an ethical issue. It’s a mathematical issue. If we are consuming 30 percent more than the biosphere can regenerate, then unless we change, we will kill more and more children every single day. That’s what people have to realize.”

It’s a sobering realization that we often like to sweep under the rug. I suppose it’s easier that way – or so we like to think. I mean, who enjoys watching those Sarah McLachlan infomercials about orphaned animals or the ads that ask you to call in with a credit card to feed starving children in third world countries?

Those absolutely break my heart. However, they aren’t just tools used by scam artists to take your money. Those people really do exist, and as much as it hurts, it’s always better to know the facts.

According to the UN Millennium Project Fast Facts, more than one billion people in the world live on less than one dollar a day. In total, 2.7 billion struggle to survive on less than two dollars per day. More than 800 million people go to bed hungry; 300 million of those are children. Every 3.6 seconds another person dies of starvation and the large majority are children under the age of five.

“We are consuming 30 percent more than the planet can regenerate,” explains the award-winning director. “It means that, for us to maintain our lifestyles in the north, we will have to plunge more and more people below the poverty line in the countries of the south. That was the most difficult for me: to see all this suffering and misery.”

His most recent film, The End of Poverty?, is a feature-length documentary that is taking film festivals by storm. The piece of cinematic mastery exposes the role poverty plays across the globe with narration by actor and activist Martin Sheen.

Filmed in the barrios of Latin America, the slums of Africa and the office spaces of Nobel prize winners, acclaimed authors, university professors and government ministers, the documentary starts from the very beginning: literally since policies dealing with class and race were first implemented.

It was then that the polarized separation of wealth and poverty first developed. He also believes that it was from the very beginning that our society was nurtured with the comforting idea that the resources of the planet are unlimited, and because of this, we “will never be able to catch up. The poor will die in more and more massive numbers unless we create a more sustainable world.”

For the man who spent six months weeding through 105 hours of raw footage, it was not the technical part of making the film that he found most troublesome, but rather the subject matter with which he became too invested.

“What was really difficult,” he admits, “was that we had to shoot in the houses of the poor people, and they live sometimes without sanitation or electricity or water. I think the most difficult part was to realize that we are responsible for their poverty.”

Centuries of misuse by the few who have the power over the masses have caused the current distribution of wealth. And not much has changed. Even in the current world order, the top percent of the population have attained the majority of the money throughout the world.

This documentary is a fine piece of investigative journalism that isn’t afraid to go there. It is a refreshing piece that sets political affiliations aside for the greater good. After all, we cannot afford to do nothing.

“I hope the movie creates this type of awareness,” urges Diaz. “As a filmmaker I am traveling to promote the awareness around the world. If we unite to create social awareness, then we will succeed. We have to unite and change things.”



The End of Poverty? releases in select theaters Nov. 25.