ABOUT THE EVENT
You are invited to join the Acton Institute on Tuesday, October 6, 2026 in Chicago at the Chicago History Museum for an advance screening of POVERTY TRAP, a new film about how big plans to end poverty broke the promise of America and what communities are doing to renew it.
Please join us at 6:00 PM for a pre-screening cocktail hour with heavy hors d'oeuvres and a red carpet photographer.
FILM SYNOPSIS
From the creators of the award-winning documentary Poverty, Inc. comes a new film about social and material poverty in the United States.
POVERTY TRAP examines how big plans to end poverty broke the promise of America—and what communities are doing to renew it.
From the legacy of urban renewal and the War on Poverty to today's sprawling network of social programs, many attempts to fight poverty have kept people stuck. As Lee Moore of Jackson, Mississippi puts it: "It's hard to make it out."
Drawing on more than 130 interviews across 16 states, the film traces a sweeping story of policy failure and lost communities, but also redemption—finding purpose after prison, dignity reclaimed from addiction and homelessness, and revival around “a little garden” in South Dallas.
POVERTY TRAP exposes the tragedy of treating human struggle as a technical problem to be managed and solved by experts. It points toward something different: the untapped capacity of people to transform their own lives and communities.
