Committee for the Abolition of Illegitimate Debt

As the global economic crises deepens, activists worldwide seek to draw attention to the plight of the poor through actions this week to mark the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty and to demand that world leaders deliver on their promises to eradicate extreme poverty and achieve the Millennium Development Goals by 2015.

A new documentary film, The End of Poverty,’s that examines the increase in global poverty as the byproduct of free market economics, has struck a nerve with anti-poverty activists and film festivals and is being screened this week at events in over twenty countries from Argentina to Pakistan to the United States as part of a worldwide protest.

Narrated by actor Martin Sheen, the feature length documentary features Nobel prize winners in economics Amartya Sen and Joseph Stiglitz; expert authors Susan George (’sA Fate Worse Than Debt’s), Eric Toussaint (The World bank World Bank
WB The World Bank was founded as part of the new international monetary system set up at Bretton Woods in 1944. Its capital is provided by member states’ contributions and loans on the international money markets. It financed public and private projects in Third World and East European countries.

It consists of several closely associated institutions, among which :

1. The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD, 189 members in 2017), which provides loans in productive sectors such as farming or energy ;

2. The International Development Association (IDA, 159 members in 1997), which provides less advanced countries with long-term loans (35-40 years) at very low interest (1%) ;

3. The International Finance Corporation (IFC), which provides both loan and equity finance for business ventures in developing countries.

As Third World Debt gets worse, the World Bank (along with the IMF) tends to adopt a macro-economic perspective. For instance, it enforces adjustment policies that are intended to balance heavily indebted countries’ payments. The World Bank advises those countries that have to undergo the IMF’s therapy on such matters as how to reduce budget deficits, round up savings, enduce foreign investors to settle within their borders, or free prices and exchange rates.

: A Never Ending Coup D’Etat), John Perkins ( Confessions of an Economic Hit Man), Chalmers Johnson (Nemesis: The Last Days of the America Republic); as well as educators such as William Easterly (Brookings Institution) and leaders of social movements in Bolivia, Brazil, Venezuela, Kenya and Tanzania.

The film, which premiered during the Cannes Film Festival in 2008 and has been selected by twelve additional international film festivals, is a timely explanation of an economic system that has developed since colonial times into the profit Profit The positive gain yielded from a company’s activity. Net profit is profit after tax. Distributable profit is the part of the net profit which can be distributed to the shareholders. -driven capitalism that is responsible for the current economic crises. Organizations such as Amnesty International, ATTAC (Association for the Taxation of Financial Transactions to Aid Citizens), CADTM (Committee for the Abolition of the Third World Debt), Global Call to Action against Poverty (GCAP), InterAction, Jubilee Debt Campaign, and the UN Millennium Campaign, have organized preview screening events as part of this week of action against poverty.

The film will screen in thirteen countries as part of Stand Up Take Action, (www.standagainstpoverty.org) a global event that seeks to mobilize one percent of the world’s population — 67 million people — over three days beginning Friday October 17, 2008 to demand an end to extreme poverty. A special screening has been organized in Washington D.C. with other preview events in Brazzaville (Congo), Buenos Aires (Argentina), Casablanca (Morocco), Havana (Cuba), Lomo (Togo), London (UK), Lumbubashi (RDC), Nouakchott (Mauritania), Quito (Ecuador), Sao Paulo (Brazil), and Sydney (Australia) as well as in Pakistan.

Additional screenings have been organized by CADTM (http://www.cadtm.org/) in Belgium, Benin, Ivory Coast, Ecuador, France, Guinea, India, Japan, Mali, Niger and Venezuela as part of its week of Global Action Against Debt and International Financial Institutions.

Produced by Cinema Libre Studio (http://www.cinemalibrestudio.com/) in association with Robert Schalkenbach Foundation, and directed by Philippe Diaz (The Empire In Africa) the film will be released in US theatres in March 2009. More information is available at www.TheEndofPoverty.com.

Notes to Editors:

A complete list of screenings, press notes and downloadable images and clips are available at www.theEndofPovety.com. The film’s director, Philippe Diaz is available for phone interviews as are clips for television.

For more information on Stand up Take Action visit www.standagainstpoverty.org and for the UN Millennium Campaign visit www.endpoverty2015.org.

About Cinema Libre Studio:

Cinema Libre Studio is a haven for independent filmmakers with views, offering one-stop shopping for production and distribution. Headquartered in Los Angeles, the company is best known for distributing social issue films that include: Outfoxed, Uncovered, Participant Media’ss Angels In The Dust and Desert Bayou and will distribute The Beautiful Truth in theatres in November. For more information, please visit www.cinemalibrestudio.com.