Living on One Dollar

I was glued to this documentary from the first few seconds. This is a very important story to tell and the filmmakers get it bang on. It really gets you thinking about the world we live in and how harshly people have to live. But it also creates hope for the future and provides inspiration to act. The families that are featured really make the film. I was so interested in seeing how they lived despite how little they have. The filmmakers adopting this way of life makes it all so very real. You can really feel how it would be to live on one dollar a day. When I realized the lack of nutrition options, it really hit home. I have also become so grateful for the clean water that comes out of my tap. I cannot wait until the future episodes are aired.

This movie is absolutely remarkable. It opens the eyes of viewers to look past the place that they live and realize that even on your hardest day, you can still have it better than others. I absolutely loved it the first time I watched it, and the 4 times after that as well. I would recommend it to anyone and everyone. I may not be able to change the entire world but if I can just change one person's world that is good enough for me and I want to spend the rest of my life doing so. Thank you for the inspiration and a view of true humanity. God Bless everyone involved in the production of this film.

Sincerely,

A 15 Year Old Viewer

I'll start with some positives- it was insightful to see how the locals live, and their daily struggles. A completely different way of material living, even though we all have the same fundamental human needs and aspirations.

Some negatives- I felt the guys were quite naïve and underprepared. A lot of the "profound" things they learned were really obvious, and not at all fleshed out by the format or execution of their experiment. A longer stint, involving real subsistence farming or laboring could have provided more context. Just starving themselves on bananas and beans couldn't possibly achieve much.

Nevertheless, it was reasonably entertaining to watch and I'm glad they mixed well with the local population and spent time telling their stories. I particularly found it interesting how there was a real community and family spirit that is dying in modem consumer society so it was good that this was highlighted by this short documentary...

To all those who rates it extremely low:

"Oh it's just some rich boys condescending toward the extreme poor" - If trying to raise awareness of extreme poverty is condescension, then all charities are to some extent condescending toward the poor as well. The fact is, helping someone in need DOES NOT EQUAL to condescending. And if you've actually finished the film, you should be able to see how much respect the boys are paying to the people.

"Oh they're not replicating the true poverty situation enough" - Yes, perhaps they didn't replicate 100% of real extreme poverty. Yet, is it that necessary? No! I believe the contrast is already there, sufficient to inspire someone who has never seriously imagined what's it like to live on $1 per day, and to raise awareness on what's happening to the everyday lives of 1.1 billion people.

"Rendered the lives of Guatemalan people as two-dimensional" - Dude it's just a documentary under an hour, what do you expect? Too long and people may lose interest and patience to watch, too short and people complain for lack of depth. You really don't need that much "3D character portrayal" to imagine what's it really going on in Guatemala, do you?

All in all, it's an inspiring film that raised awareness of world's extreme poverty through the lenses of first-world kids. Sure, it's not perfect, but it did inspire many who watched it, and it raised a good amount of charity funding as well, I believe. In short, it's making an impact to the world, unlike many blockbusters which simply provided instant gratifications.

If only everyone donates a tiny bit of their monthly salary to a good charity, the poorest would be much better off. We need more films like this.

Living on One Dollar (2013)

** (out of 4)

Four friends traveled to a rural part of Guatemala where they try to survive on what's basically less than one dollar. The extreme poverty of the area is the main focus of this documentary.

I'm sure everyone involved with this documentary had great intentions but the end result just didn't really work with me. I couldn't help but feel that this film was done by privileged people with money who wanted to go shine a light on poor people. I'm sorry but I just never felt like I was watching something real and instead it just seemed too hokey and fake.

Perhaps I'm 100% wrong. Heck, I might be since I've never been to this location or worked with any of these people. With that said, if what I was watching was real then it just didn't come across that way on screen. The film really did seem to be scripted as we get the good stuff, we get the drama, we get the downfall, we get the miracle that saves the day, we get another tragedy and then the happy ending. It just never did work with me.