Docu presents eye-opening look at roots of poverty

By Eric Monder

NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) - For those who blame the victim or consider poverty merely a social ill, "The End of Poverty?" will prove to be an eye-opener. This refreshingly straightforward documentary gives the world-history "backstory" (and continuing story) of why so many people live so poorly and die of malnutrition in abundant societies.

Though the topic is unappealing as entertainment, "The End of Poverty?" does an excellent job of informing the viewer without exploiting its subjects or their cultures. The film's title won't attract the unenlightened, but one hopes the film, which opened Friday, will make an impact over time.

"The End of Poverty?" comprises a series of intercut interviews with scholars from a variety of fields to discuss the causes of poverty and the nexus of colonialism, war, politics, economics, privatization, debt, trade and tax policies, property rights, intellectual-property rights, et al. In between these illuminating interviews. Off-screen narrator Martin Sheen guides the viewer through the two main shooting locations: the ghettos of Africa and Latin America.

The matter-of-fact tone of most of the speakers (including Sheen) allows the facts and visuals to make the film's case without excessive or manipulative emotion. Unlike a "Feed the Children" type of infomercial, "The End of Poverty?" simply presents its story as a way to help start solving this age-old problem or at least inspire the public to think differently about poverty and its relationship to everything else.

A few small quibbles: The speakers who are interviewed are predominantly men, yet more often than not women and children wind up in poverty, so why couldn't writer-director Philippe Diaz find more female scholars on the subject -- Barbara Ehrenreich, for example?

The restraint from finger-pointing may be deliberate (in order for Diaz to maintain his general big-picture strategy), but surely the worst politicians and corporations could have been named and highlighted. At least we hear about Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet at one point, and there is also a brief mention of Ronald Reagan.

The film couldn't include everything without being several hours long (and Diaz says his first cut actually was), so maybe a few sequels are in order. But what the film contains is vital and significant.