Free Lunch Society

Pig Tusks and Paper Money

January 1999 •English

In Papua New Guinea, pig tusks and shell money are currencies which can buy most things. Henry Tokubak’s dream is to create the first bank where traditional money counts as legal tender.

Un jour en Italie

August 2017 •French

The China Hustle

March 2018 •English

An unsettling and eye-opening Wall Street horror story about Chinese companies, the American stock market, and the opportunistic greed behind the biggest heist you've never heard of.

Overdraft

January 2012 •English

Overdraft is an award-winning film featuring leading thinkers and policymakers from across the aisle exploring major topics such as entitlement programs, defense spending, tax reform and the choices that America’s debt forces on individuals and businesses. Independently produced, Overdraft was launched in August 2012, and made available for broadcast on public television for two years through the National Educational Telecommunications Association (NETA).

69, année pandémique

October 2020 •French

Herrings

September 1940 •English

This informative herring aid from WWII makes no bones about the need to make the most of every fish.

The Bubble

July 2018 •English

Diving deep into the true causes of the Great Recession, the financial crisis of the 2010s, renowned economists, investors and business leaders explain what America is facing if we don't learn from our past mistakes. Is the economy really improving or are we just blowing up another Bubble?

La dette de la France 1974-2015

April 2016 •French

Who’s Counting? Marilyn Waring on Sex, Lies and Global Economics

October 1995 •English

This documentary profiles economist and writer Marilyn Waring. In extensive interviews, Waring details her feminist approach to finances and challenges commonly accepted truths about the global economy. The filmmakers detail Waring's early rise to political prominence and her successful protests against nuclear arms. Waring also speaks candidly about wartime economies, suggesting that government policies tend to marginalize the fiscal contributions of women.

Zeitgeist

June 2007 •English

A documentary examining possible historical and modern conspiracies surrounding Christianity, the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and the Federal Reserve bank.

Zeitgeist: Addendum

October 2008 •English

Zeitgeist: Addendum premiered at the 5th Annual Artivist Film Festival. Director Peter Joseph stated: "The failure of our world to resolve the issues of war, poverty, and corruption, rests within a gross ignorance about what guides human behavior to begin with. It address the true source of the instability in our society, while offering the only fundamental, long-term solution."

Cine de Emboscada

June 2017 •Spanish

Let's Not Live Like Slaves

September 2013 •French

Ruy Mauro Marini and the Dependancy Dialetics

Invalid date •Portuguese

Ruy Mauro Marini was a brazilian sociologist who developed the Marxist Dependancy Theory, to explain the development of latin american nations due their place in the global capitalism. This film, through multiple interviews, gives a short overview of his life and work.

The Bigger Bubble

Invalid date •English

After starting a painting business right before the housing crash, a filmmaker drives over 35,000 miles to track down the people who saw it coming and look ahead to the consequences of a decade of secret bank bailouts and 0% interest.

Capitalism Hits the Fan

January 2009 •English

With breathtaking clarity, renowned University of Massachusetts Economics Professor Richard Wolff breaks down the root causes of today's economic crisis, showing how it was decades in the making and in fact reflects seismic failures within the structures of American-style capitalism itself. Wolff traces the source of the economic crisis to the 1970s, when wages began to stagnate and American workers were forced into a dysfunctional spiral of borrowing and debt that ultimately exploded in the mortgage meltdown. By placing the crisis within this larger historical and systemic frame, Wolff argues convincingly that the proposed government "bailouts," stimulus packages, and calls for increased market regulation will not be enough to address the real causes of the crisis, in the end suggesting that far more fundamental change will be necessary to avoid future catastrophes.

Unser Wirtschaftswunder - Die wahre Geschichte

July 2013 •German

Le business du commerce équitable

August 2013 •French

More and more fair trade labels are entering the market and are being positively received by consumers. In 2012, around five billion euros were spent on fair trade products. But is it really always fair where it says fair? Filmmaker Donatien Lemaître visited plantations in Mexico, the Dominican Republic and Kenya. The investigative documentary reveals how international corporations try to improve their image with the help of the fair trade concept - at the expense of small producers and their employees.

Who Owns New Zealand Now?

September 2017 •English

Award-winning documentary maker Bryan Bruce investigates New Zealand's housing crisis and what might be done to solve it. Bruce consults with recognised world experts (in Canada, Ireland and Germany) to discuss their global research – this time on foreign capital and housing affordability and the effect of immigration on house prices. Bruce also looks at some of the many possible solutions (available particularly in Germany) that would provide families with stability of tenure that don’t involve private ownership.

Tightrope: Americans Reaching for Hope

November 2019 •English

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn explore the causes and costs of addiction, poverty and incarceration plaguing America, from the inner city to small towns like Kristof's hometown of Yamhill, Oregon. While pockets of empathy and aid exist, are they enough to rescue the thousands of Americans in despair, for whom the American Dream of self-reliance is impossibly out of reach?