The Divide is a new documentary which tells the story of seven individuals striving for a better life in the modern-day USA and UK where the top 0.1 per cent owns as much wealth as the bottom 90 per cent. By plotting these tales together, the film argues that every aspect of our lives is controlled by one factor: the size of the gap between rich and poor. Wall Street psychologist Alden wants to make it to the top 1 per cent; KFC worker Leah from Richmond, Virginia, just wants to make it through the day; Rochelle in Newcastle wishes her work as a carer wasn’t looked down on so much; Jen in Sacramento, California, doesn’t even talk to the neighbours in her upscale gated community – they’ve made it clear to her she isn’t ‘their kind’. By weaving these stories with news archive from 1979 to the present day, The Divide creates a lyrical, psychological and tragi-comic picture of how economic division creates social division.

The film is inspired by the critically-acclaimed, best-selling book The Spirit Level by Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett, which was awarded the second Bristol Festival of Ideas Best Book of Ideas prize. The authors argued that the more equal a society, the better that society is, not just for the less well off, but for everyone: there is less crime, better educational achievement, better health outcomes and greater social cohesion. Concerns about growing inequality have intensified since the book’s publication and this is now seen as one of most pressing issues facing countries today. The film screening is followed by a discussion with Kate Pickett.　

In association with Equality Bristol.

This is a special preview of The Divide. Thanks to Dartmouth Films for this.

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