Founded in 2008 by a quartet of Harvard and MIT economics graduates, the charitable startup GiveDirectly has become one of the world’s fastest-growing nonprofits by virtue of its simple but innovative approach to raising funds for underprivileged communities. Allowing predominantly Western donors to make direct, unconditional cash transfers to poverty-stricken East African individuals via their phones, the concept cuts out the intermediary factors of larger charities — where televisually induced donations of a few dollars a month might have little direct effect on those in need. On the face of it, it seems a sound idea, and at the outset of Sam Soko and Lauren DeFilippo’s smart, calmly probing documentary “Free Money,” you might be forgiven for expecting a thinly disguised, feature-length infomercial for GiveDirectly itself.
Neither the charity nor the documentary, however, work exactly as they initially appear to. What begins as a generous, receptive platform for Michael Faye,...
Neither the charity nor the documentary, however, work exactly as they initially appear to. What begins as a generous, receptive platform for Michael Faye,...
- 11/18/2022
- by Guy Lodge
- Variety Film + TV
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