The End of Poverty film preview

Henry George Historical Society
189 Ellsworth St.
San Francisco, CA 94110 415-970-9306 info [at] henrygeorgehistoricalsociety.org

October 20, 2009

social justice and environmental advocates

Greetings!

I’m David Giesen, Director of the Henry George Historical Society. I am writing to tell you about a dynamite film coming to San Francisco this December which I’m confident will grow your organization.

The End of Poverty explores how colonialism has AND IS privatizing the commons, and thereby manufactures poverty. Social justice and environmental issues are all about the friction generated when what is properly the community’s is treated as a source of private income.

We invite you to share knowledge of this Cannes Film Festival award winning documentary from CINEMA LIBRE with your membership and with the public. The film will unlock public conversations about subjects dear to your heart and sure to resonate with a wider and deeper constituency.

The End of Poverty features interviews with John Perkins (Confessions of an Economic Hitman), Joseph Stiglitz (The Three Trillion Dollar War), Amartya Sen (The Idea of Justice), Susan George (How the Other Half Dies) and others, marking this film as significant for the voices it includes. But what signals this documentary as one which YOUR WORK will wish to be associated with is its identification of systematic appropriation of land, resources, and capital leverage as the recurrent variable in the manufacturing of poverty. It is not inherent shortcomings in the poor or particular cultures, but alienation of people from the commons that drives poverty.

Whether the issue is clean air, access to water, exploitation of mineral or organic resources, access to health care, education, or fair trade, an underlying concern with all of them is equitable, unprivileged access to the commons.

Please come to a one hour long reception for you and your organization on either Wednesday, October 28 (7 pm) at City College’s Valencia Street campus, Room 363. We’d like to show you a 20 minute preview of The End of Poverty, and discuss what the film could mean for building support for your organization.

The End of Poverty comes to San Francisco in early December after its opening in New York and Los Angeles the two previous weeks.

RSVP appreciated. Cheese, bread, beer and wine will be on hand.

Sincerely,

David Giesen