The Microlending Film Project (Newest Version) (2011)

The Microlending Film Project tells the stories of citizens on four continents who are mothers, wives, daughters - and entrepreneurs. Armed with microloans invested in increments as small as $25, we follow these women as they start and maintain their own businesses, pulling themselves out of poverty, and sometimes finding that loans aren't enough. In doing so we explore how microborrowing can help women improve their standards of living as it offers an innovative, alternate investment and financing model, the implications when microlending fails - why did the suicides in India happen? - and how it may be used to help small businesses in the U.S. In an effort to tell a comprehensive story, we shot in Paraguay, India, Kenya, and Detroit, MI.