Liberation Season: Screening – Good Fortune
Good Fortune explores how massive, international efforts to alleviate poverty in Africa may be undermining the very communities they aim to benefit. Through intimate portraits of two Kenyans battling to save their homes from large-scale development organisations, the film presents a unique opportunity to experience foreign aid through the eyes of the people it is intended to benefit.
On the outskirts of Nairobi, Silva’s home and business in Africa’s largest squatter community are being demolished as part of a United Nations slum-upgrading project. In the rural countryside, Jackson’s farm is being flooded by an American investor who hopes to alleviate poverty by creating a multi-million dollar rice farm.
Interweaving meditative portraits of its characters, Good Fortune examines the real-world impact of international aid. With a broad scope and intimate style, the film portrays gripping stories of human perseverance and suggests that the answers for Africa lie in the resilience of its people.
Directed by Landon Van Soest
2010
In 2000, world leaders agreed to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – a pledge to halve extreme poverty by 2015.
However with just five years to go, progress is drastically slow. To explore why, and to ask what can be done, the UK development NGO network Bond presents a season of award winning documentaries in association with Good Screenings (www.goodscreenings.org).
