Poverty Movies

The story of Shaista, a young man who—newly married to Benazir and living in a camp for displaced persons in Kabul—struggles to balance...

Left penniless by her vengeful ex-husband, Madeline is forced to become a pickpocket to pay for a new wardrobe. One of her victims is a Mr. Finlay,...

The day she turns 40, Marguerite Flora, a successful rep for a nuclear power company, begins receiving letters she'd sent to herself at age seven....

The true story of Saartje Baartman, a black South African worker who moves to London with her master in the early 19th century. Although she dreams...

Sally, a girl of the tenements, is being raised by three bachelor foster-fathers, a pawnbroker, an organ-grinder and a peddler, and is very happy...

Martinique, in the early 1930s. Young José and his grandmother live in a small village. Nearly everyone works cutting cane and barely earning...

A detailed look at the gradual decline of Shenyang’s industrial Tiexi district, an area that was once a vibrant example of China’s...

A drug-addicted girl from an abusive family finds hope through kind people but her grim reality strikes back just as she sees a glimmer of light.

Oscar François de Jarjayes was born female, but her father insisted she be raised as a boy as he had no sons. She becomes the captain of the...

A rural widow sends her only son to Tokyo to receive a better education. Years later, she visits him and finds he has become a night school teacher...

Born a lower-caste girl in rural India's patriarchal society, "married" at 11, repeatedly raped and brutalized, Phoolan Devi finds freedom only as an...

An Indian arouses envy for his expertise in hunting animals without ruining their skins, for his wisdom and his kindness.

In the late 19th century, a former high school teacher turned unionist tries to organize workers laboring with inhuman conditions at a textile...

As police and DEA agents battle sophisticated cartels, rural, economically-disadvantaged users and dealers–whose addiction to ICE and lack of...

This documentary follows the lives of the Bowling family as they fight to survive in dirt-poor Appalachia. Matriarch Iree has given birth to 13...

Nohemí and Mary are two women resisting structural violence in Ciudad Juárez. United by pain and hope, both mothers find inspiration to...

Struggling against the harsh realities of poverty, a devoted father, Mike reluctantly turns to burglary to provide for his daughter. The narrative...

A poor fisherman and his girlfriend live in a small boat under an open sky for decades. Based on a true story.

Yeong-shin and Dong-hyuk graduate from college with a cause. They plan to bring education and modernization to farmers living in the rural area of...

A European immigrant endures a challenging voyage only to get into trouble as soon as he arrives in New York.