With breathtaking clarity, renowned University of Massachusetts Economics Professor Richard Wolff breaks down the root causes of today's economic crisis, showing how it was decades in the making and in fact reflects seismic failures within the structures of American-style capitalism itself. Wolff traces the source of the economic crisis to the 1970s, when wages began to stagnate and American workers were forced into a dysfunctional spiral of borrowing...

The film provides fascinating insights into the pressures facing non-western people as they confront the global economy. Follow two women from Ladakh, or Little Tibet, on a reality tour of London to see what life in the West is really like. The women are exposed to aspects of modern urban life homelessness, old-age homes, massive garbage dumps that contrast sharply with the idealized media and advertising images impressed upon people's minds in the...

While there's been no shortage of commentary about the structural crisis plaguing the American economic and political system, from wage stagnation and chronic unemployment to unchecked corporate and state power and growing inequality, analyses that offer practical, politically viable solutions to these problems have been few and far between. This illustrated presentation from distinguished historian and political economist Gar Alperovitz is a rare...

Story of an unemployed man and his son in war devastated Rome. The father finds a job pasting up posters, work requiring a bicycle to get around. The bicycle is stolen; panic stricken at being unable to recover his bicycle and at the prospect of losing his job, the father is compelled to steal a bicycle, only to be caught and humiliated in front of his son.

Disruption explores a groundbreaking initiative that seeks to eradicate poverty by empowering women on government assistance programs in Colombia, Peru and Brazil to “save their way out of poverty.” The film interweaves women’s testimonies to the transformative power of financial education with the story of Fundación Capital, a group of dynamic activist-economists that believes when you invest in women you change society. As women share how...

The financial meltdown from the perspective of a number of players: Michael Burry, a bizarre stock-picking genius, and the first to realize that the market's housing boom is based on a "house of cards" sham; Mark Baum, self-loathing character whose firm picks up insider trading information from a wrong number phone call; Jared Vennet, a smart-aleck broker who confirms the ominous suspicion; and Charlie Gellar and Jamie Shipley, small-time players...

Told through the compelling lives of five courageous Haitian women workers, Poto Mitan gives the global economy a human face. Each woman's personal story explains neoliberal globalization, how it is gendered, and how it impacts Haiti. And while Poto Mitan offers in-depth understanding of Haiti, its focus on women's subjugation, worker exploitation, poverty, and resistance makes it clear that these are global struggles. Marie-Jeanne details her dual...

Made in China tells one of the millions of stories of migrants from rural China who comprise the backbone of the Chinese economic miracle. It provides a human face behind the ubiquitous label "Made in China." This massive dislocation of people may well represent the largest, most rapid migration in human history. The film demonstrates how one generation of Chinese is experiencing the culture shock of an Industrial Revolution which took centuries in...

When thousands of people concerned about growing economic inequality gathered in Zuccotti Park in New York City on September 17, 2011, there was little indication that they would fundamentally transform American political debate and ignite a full-scale national and global protest movement. But within a year, the Occupy Wall Street protestors had done just that.This powerful collection of short films, made by Occupy protestors on the ground, tells...

"Give me the child until he is seven and I will give you the man." The Jesuit maxim behind the landmark UP Series has now been taken to South Africa, where a group of children, first filmed in 1992 at the age of 7, are now 21. Rich and poor, black, white and "mixed race," the fascinating and revealing portraits featured in 21 Up South Africa offer unique insights into the social and political upheavals that have occurred throughout South Africa since...