For most of the readers of this newspaper a 25-cent increase in hourly wage would hardly be cause for celebration. But for at least one of the subjects of "Waging a Living" - an eye-opening, often heartbreaking documentary about America's working poor - that pittance could mean the difference between disaster and survival.
Filmed over a three-year period in the Northeast and California, "Waging a Living" tracks four ethnically diverse, low-wage workers as they struggle to bridge the gap between paycheck and expenses. "There's no American dream anymore," sighs Jean Reynolds, 51, a certified nursing assistant supporting three children and four grandchildren on $1,200 a month. In common with 78 percent of low-wage workers, Jean has no health insurance and faces eviction when she must choose between paying her rent and purchasing medication for her terminally ill daughter.
Middle-aged divorcée Mary Venittelli works as a waitress for $2.13 an hour and feeds her three children from a food pantry in a neighboring county to avoid the shame. Applying for yet another credit card to pay the bills, Mary is resigned: "What do I have to worry about, someone stealing my identity? Please!"
We have all heard the appalling statistics. More than 30 million Americans work low-wage jobs, and more than half the people who began the last decade in poverty are still there. Many are single mothers, battling a system intent on getting people off welfare without lifting them out of poverty. The documentary reveals a country rife with income inequality, short-term political thinking and ineffective tracking of deadbeat dads, a country in which filling a simple prescription for a child's asthma medication can put a family in the street.
Barbara Brooks, a mother of five and a recreational counselor, is bewildered. "I tell everyone I'm hustling backwards," she says, her faith in the golden ring of education severely dented when a sorely won associate's degree yields a raise of $450 in income a month and - shockingly - $600 less in public assistance.
The Academy Award nominated director Roger Weisberg has used almost all of his dozens of previous films to illuminate the struggles of the poor, and "Waging a Living" is presented with customary empathy and willingness to allow his indefatigable subjects to speak for themselves. Neither hectoring nor sanctimonious, the film plays like an illustrated version of Barbara Ehrenreich's recent best-seller "Nickel and Dimed," and has an editing style that's brisk and unexploitative. To further humanize the topic, "Waging a Living" is accompanied by a 25-minute short film, "Rosevelt's America," a vérité profile of Rosevelt Henderson, a Liberian refugee. An uplifting portrait of dignity under duress, it was directed by Mr. Weisberg and the talented Tod Lending, whose powerful inner-city documentary, "Legacy," was a 2001 Academy Award nominee.
In a happy large-screen/small-screen coincidence, "Waging a Living" appears just as Morgan Spurlock, the cavalier director of last year's fast-food exposé "Super Size Me," kicked off his new series for the F/X network, "30 Days," last week. In the first episode, Mr. Spurlock and his fiancée attempt to survive for a month on minimum wage. Mr. Weisberg's subjects already know they won't succeed.
Waging a Living
Opens today in Manhattan.
Directed by Roger Weisberg in collaboration with Eddie Rosenstein, Frances Reid and Pamela Harris; directors of photography, Slawomir Grunberg and Hilary Morgan; edited by Sandra Christie, Christopher White and Lewis Erskine; music by Richard Fiocca; produced by Mr. Weisberg; released by Public Policy Productions. Shown with Mr. Weisberg's and Tod Lending's 25-minute documentary, "Rosevelt's America," at the Two Boots Pioneer Theater, 155 East Third Street, at Avenue A, East Village. Running time: 85 minutes. This film is not rated.
WITH: Jean Reynolds, Jerry Longoria, Barbara Brooks and Mary Venittelli. -------------------------------------------------------------- Please Note: Due to Florida's very broad public records law, most written communications to or from College employees regarding College business are public records, available to the public and media upon request. Therefore, this e-mail communication may be subject to public disclosure.