Project Synopsis
Capitalism and Charity: A Documentary on Microlending to Women Across the World is a story-based film that we will begin shooting in early 2010. We will travel to South America, Africa, and Asia to document the experiences of women using microloans - very small loans made to those in poverty, often in increments of as little as $25 - to start and maintain their own businesses. In doing so, we will explore the impact that social entrepreneurship can have from a micro to a macro perspective: we will examine its effects on the individual taking out the loan, on her family, her community, and ultimately the ripple effect on her country's GDP and the global economy at large. As Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn state in their recent release, Half the Sky: Turning Oppression Into Opportunity for Women Worldwide, "capitalism, it turns out, can achieve what charity and good intentions sometimes cannot" (p. 187).
We are interested in focusing on microlending to women in particular because women are an often under-utilized economic component of countries in the Third World. Thus, while it is a given that helping poor women financially support themselves and their families is a definitive moral right, we are interested in examining how doing so through microlending may also be an economic imperative.
To better ground the narrative, we seek to interview professionals like Kristof and WuDunn who have studied and written about microlending and its effects. We also want to speak with experts on China and its rise to superpower, as the assertion has been made that the widespread employment of rural Chinese women who were previously not working outside the home had much to do with the country's swift ascent to global economic prominence. Local experts who have witnessed the economic impact of microlending to women firsthand will also be interviewed - bankers, government officials, employees at microlending institutions, and former recipients of microloans who are now established entrepreneurs will be among those invited to offer their thoughts.
Rachel will be undertaking a scouting trip to Paraguay in November 2009 to meet with female microborrowers who may be featured in the film.
