A NEW film aims to shine a spotlight on the divide between rich and poor.
Dorset Equality Group will be screening ‘The Divide’, a film about social inequality, at Shire Hall Historic Courthouse Museum on October 3, from 7pm.
The film will be introduced by former Dorset Liberal Democrat MP and joint founder of the Dorset Equality Group, Dame Annette Brook, who will also lead the discussion afterwards.
The group will also be holding a discussion about the themes raised in the film after the screening.
‘The Divide’ tells the story of seven individuals striving for a better life in the modern-day US and UK – where the top 0.1% owns as much wealth as the bottom 90%.
By plotting these tales together, the audience will uncover how virtually every aspect of modern life is controlled by one factor: the size of the gap between rich and poor.
The film looks at Wall Street psychologist Alden, who wants to make it to the top 1%, KFC worker Leah from Richmond, Virginia, who just wants to make it through the day, Jen in Sacramento, California, who doesn’t even talk to the neighbours in her upscale gated community – they’ve made it clear to her she isn’t ‘their kind.’
By weaving these stories with news archive footage from 1979 to the present day, ‘The Divide’ creates a lyrical, psychological and tragi-comic picture of how economic division creates social division. The film is inspired by the critically-acclaimed, best-selling book ‘The Spirit Level’ by Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett.
The screening will be held in Shire Hall’s Learning Room, doors and bar are open 7pm for 7.30pm and entry is £5 per person. For more information visitwww.shirehalldorset.org
