Good Fortune

Landon Van Soest

Festival selections :
Stop Aid Now, IDFA Selection

When & where?

zaterdag, March 27, 2010 - 14:00
Theater aan het Spui 1, The Hague

Talkshows & debates

zaterdag, March 27, 2010 - 14:00

Followed by a debate with Peter van Lieshout (WRR), Kenyan human rights activist Maina Kiai and journalist Roman Baatenburg de Jong about how to deal with the advices of much talked-of WRR Report about development assistance with regard to the film

Good Fortune

Landon Van Soest

"There’s quite a lot of mess, but life is OK", says a Kenyan women when asked about the conditions in Nairobi’s backstreet district Kibera. She is worried about the UN and the Kenyan government’s plans to clean up the quarter in order to make way for new buildings. Kibera’s inhabitants, who have seen similar projects fail due to corruption, are convinced that they will lose their dwellings. "A clever way to get us out." In the country, too, people are persuaded that American investor Dominion Farms Ltd. will only get them into trouble. According to the company, it is time to take Kenya "to the same level of prosperity as the rest of the world". 'Good Fortune' portrays the daily life of Kenya’s city and country dwellers, who are not keen on (white men) meddling in internal affairs. The spectator is confronted with the stereotypical ideas about rich and poor that exist in the western world. What is poverty? "I am not poor, I have a resource", says a man about the big swamp next to where he lives. The militancy of the Kenyan population is revealed when riots break out everywhere in Nairobi after president Kibaki’s re-election, in what seems to be an unequal fight.

United States 2009, 70 min.

Documentary, Video, Colour

Spoken language: English

Subtitles: Engels

Official website: http://www.transientpictures.com

Awards: Silverdocs 2009 - WITNESS Award

Productions:

Transient Pictures

Jeremy Levine

info@transientpictures.com

+1 646 257 2590

www.transientpictures.com