Trailer: “Poor Us: An Animated History of Poverty”

“It’s the way the world works. Essentially, poverty is what makes the rich rich.”

Poor Us: An Animated History of Poverty is a new documentary by Ben Lewis, debuting this week throughout Europe, and on PBS in the United States. The special, will be shown on TV in over 70 countries, is an animated survey of over 10,000 years of poverty. It draws on interviews with economists and historians including Jeffrey Sachs (author, The End of Poverty), Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz, Esther Duflo (MIT Poverty Lab and author, Poor Economics), Tim Hitchcock (Council of the Royal Historical Society), Emmanuel Akyeampong (Historian of Africa, Harvard) and Oscar Guardiola (Author, What if Latin America Ruled The World).

The animation portions of the film were directed by Fons Schiedon, designed by Cesare Davolio and Maarten Janssens, and animated by São Paulo, Brazil-based Birdo.

The director discusses the film at length on his website. American viewers can watch the entire film on the PBS website. Otherwise, here’s the trailer:

(Thanks, Fraser MacLean)