Poverty Inc. About the Film

The Great Recession of 2008 proved that Wall Street and Washington's promises of rising wages, upward mobility and job security were little more than empty rhetoric that paved the way to broken dreams, soup kitchens and homelessness for millions of American citizens. Six years later, the ranks of economically disenfranchised Americans continue to swell. Currently, the US ranks fourth highest in wealth inequality among 140 nations. Fifty million Americans live below the poverty line and 17 million live on less than $2 a day. These staggering figures bring into sharp focus the fact that the War on Poverty, declared 50 years ago by President Lyndon Johnson, has been a dismal failure.

Examining the influence of corporate globalization and exposing the destructive nature of our modern financial system, Poverty Inc. offers a sobering look into how the predatory economic policies instituted by America's new elite class have contributed to the nation's descent into Third World status. Engrossing in-depth interviews with some of the world's finest economists, progressive politicians, investigative reporters and philosophers, as well as the voices of America's downtrodden reveal the terrifying threats posed by unregulated capitalism and corporate power. Poverty, Inc. is a timely wake-up call for those seeking hard-hitting answers on the economic realities facing our country and world today.

Production Bios

Gary Null Ph.D.
Respected expert in the field of health and nutrition, Gary Null, Ph.D. has authored over 70 best-selling books on healthy living and is the director of over 100 critically acclaimed full-feature documentary films on natural health, self empowerment, the environment and hard-hitting original in-depth investigative reporting. In 2012-13 he wrote, directed, and produced the following multi-award winning films: War on Health, Silent Epidemic, American Veterans, Seeds of Death, Death by Medicine and Knocking on the Devil's Door- Our Deadly Nuclear Legacy. He is the host of The Gary Null Show, the country's longest running nationally broadcast health radio show. Additionally Gary Null has been daily on WBAI Radio since 1977.

Gary Null has made thousands of radio and television broadcasts throughout the country as an environmentalist, consumer advocate, investigative reporter and nutrition educator. More than 28 different Gary Null television specials have appeared on Public Television stations throughout the nation. He originated and completed more than one hundred major investigations on health issues, resulting in the use of material by 20/20 and 60 minutes.

Valerie Van Cleve
Award winning producer, director and editor, Valerie has worked with Gary Null on many other films, including: Death by Medicine, War on Health, Knocking on the Devil's Door, Silent Epidemic, Seeds of Death, and Chew on This. She has also produced many health and self-empowerment documentaries with Gary Null, seen on PBS Stations around the country.

Prior to working on these films, for over six years, she produced a daily national news show, The INN World Report, seen in over 40 million homes.

Richard Gale
Is the Executive Producer of the Progressive Radio Network and The Gary Null Show, and has been a co-producer for six other Gary Null documentaries and seven special public television programs on natural health and healing. Earlier, he was the founding president of Global Directions Inc., a consulting company for non-profit initiatives, and was director of PR and Communications for the Gorbachev Foundation and the State of the World Forum in San Francisco. Richard holds degrees from Rutgers University and the University of Chicago.

Film Credits

Executive Producer Gary Null Ph.D.
Written and Directed by Gary Null, PhD
Co-Director Valerie Van Cleve

Produced by
Valerie Van Cleve
Richard Gale

Editors
Valerie Van Cleve
Nicholas Pulcini

Animation Nicholas Pulcini

Original Music by
Gene Michael Productions Inc.
Kevin MacLeod @ Incompetech

Camera
Peter Bonilla
David Condon
Marcelo Coppuchinho
Easy
Zoi Florosz
Gus Menezes
Greg Russ
Fred Schuller
Richie Williamson
Audio Post
Park Ave. Post

Production Research Jim O'Shea

Featuring
Sasha Abramsky, Author, American Way of Poverty
Benjamin Barber PhD, Senior Reseacher Scholar, CUNY
Jordan Ross Belfort, Former stockbroker, aka "The Wolf of Wall Street"
Joel Berg, Executive Director, NYC Coalition Against Hunger
Minister Steve Brigham, Founder and Spiritual leader of Tent City, NJ
Ellen Brown JD, Founder of the Public Banking Institute
John Cavanaugh, Director of the Institute for Policy Studies
Gerald Celente PhD, Trend forecaster, Publisher of the Trends Journal
Harvey Cox PhD, Professor Emeritus, Harvard Divinity School
John De Graff, Executive Director, Take Back Your Time
Father Michael Doyle, Sacred Heart Church, Camden, NJ
Glen Ford, Executive Editor of Black Agenda Report
Jim Garrison PhD, President & Founder of Ubiquity University
Denis Halliday, Former U.N. Assistant Secretary
Chris Hedges, Pulitzer Prize Investigative Journalist, best-selling author
Michael Hudson PhD, President, Institute for the Study of Long Term Economic Trends
Max Keiser, Host, Keiser Report for RT, Independent journalist for BBC, Al-Jazeera
David Korten PhD, former Professor, Harvard Business School, political activist
Congressman Dennis Kucinich, former U.S. Representative from Ohio
Frances Moore Lappe, Co-founder, Small Planet Institute
Garry Leech PhD, Investigative journalist and author
Les Leopold, Director, The Labor Institute and Public Health Institute
Ralph Nader LLB, Consumer Advocate, Political Activist
Sharyn O'Halloran PhD, Professor of Political Economy, Columbia University
Greg Palast, Economist, Investigative Reporter for the BBC, Author, Vulture's Picnic
Michael Parenti PhD, Political Scientist, Historian
Ruby Payne PhD, Educator, Author, A Framework for Understanding Poverty
John Perkins, Author, Confessions of an Economic Hitman
Paul Pierson PhD, Professor of Political Science, UC, Berkeley
Stephen Pimpare PhD, Social Science, Columbia University
Francis Fox Piven PhD, Professor, Political Science, City University of NY
Robert Reich PhD, Chancellor's Professor, Public Policy, UC, Berkley
Michael Ruppert, Author, Collapse, Crossing the Rubicon
Danny Schechter, TV Producer, media critic
Robert Scheer PhD, Editor in Chief, Truth Dig
Marcey Shapiro MD, Alternative Medicine Specialist
James Vrettos PhD, Professor of Sociology, John Jay College, NY
Vandana Shiva PhD, Philosopher, environmentalist
Max Fraad Wolff PhD, Economist, New School University Graduate Program
Richard Wolff PhD, Professor of Economics, New School, NYC
Suzanne Joshua, Owner of Rags-a-Go-Go
Michael "Piano Man" Berenzweig, Homeless, former resident of Tent City, NJ
Shelle Bloom, Homeless, NYC
Becky Bouchard, Homeless, Orange County, Los Angeles
Cadillac Man, Homeless, Author, Land of the Lost Souls: My Life on the Streets
Charles Drew, Homeless, Orange County, Los Angeles
Verona Jeter, former Executive Director, Henry Street Settlement, NYC
Irma Pierre-Louis, Retired Social Worker
Jean Rice, Civil Rights leader, Picture the Homeless, NY
Name Withheld, Harlem, NY
Brad Szollose, former Dot Com entrepreneur
Mimi Silbert