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Thank You! “To Catch a Dollar” Screening Is a Big Success

Jos G. Linn, RESULTS Domestic Outreach Organizer
April 01, 2011

Thanks to everyone in the RESULTS network and beyond who attended the To Catch a Dollar screening last night. I saw the movie for the first time myself at our Des Moines screening and I was impressed. Seeing how microfinance has changed the lives of women from Bangladesh to South Africa to Central America to Queens, New York was inspirational. I also enjoyed getting to know Dr. Muhammad Yunus a little better; being on RESULTS’ domestic side, we don’t interact with his work as much. It was also a great surprise to see RESULTS’ founder, Sam Daley-Harris, up on the big screen (I hope he’s getting residuals).

I was very inspired by our turnout at our local theater in Des Moines, IA. Our theater was a last minute addition to the screening list, yet we still had over 100 people attend the screening, by far the most filled theater in the movie complex last night. The movie was a hit with everyone. We were a little worried at first because at 7:20, the theater was virtually empty but then a flurry of folks showed up, including about 30 students from a college anthropology class forty miles away. Volunteers from RESULTS, Dress for Success, and Urban Ambassadors attended and made presentations before the show, looking for ways to work together on combating poverty in the U.S. RESULTS also recruited a few new people to our action network and possible new volunteers with our local group. We’ll now be doing follow up with these folks over the next week.

The good thing is that the To Catch a Dollar screening last night is only the beginning. During April, there will be follow up events and resources available for people who want to do more about reducing poverty in the U.S. RESULTS will be hosting a webinar and producing materials during the last week of April (April 25-29) focusing on policy solutions to U.S. poverty

Thank you all for your hard work in making the To Catch a Dollar screening as success. Thirty-five RESULTS groups planned events around last night's screening and we literally could not have done it without you. Here are things you can do to follow up from last night:

  • Share your screening experience with us. Add a comment below about how it went, how many came, what activities you did, and what you thought of the film.
  • Download and send our To Catch a Dollar press release to local media outlets. Tailor the release for your group and community.
  • Follow up with the people who signed up to learn more about RESULTS at your local screening. See our To Catch a Dollar Resources page for tools to use for follow-up.
  • Plan to participate in follow up events in the coming weeks. We’ll have more details for you about these in our weekly updates and our To Catch a Dollar Resources page.

Online Discussion 

Please note the comments expressed on this page are not necessarily those of RESULTS or RESULTS Educational Fund.

By Susan Kelley
April 07 at 6:50 pm

I was not at the showing at Des Peres
Cinema in St. Louis, Missouri, but was
told by the manager that 128 attended
the movie. I encourage any Missouri
or Illinois person who attended the
Des Peres showing to share with us.

By Cindy Changyit Levin
April 02 at 8:18 pm

A cool thing about our Chicago showing was the excitement over being able to vote for Grameen America to our city!  So…this is also a shamless plug to ask folks to vote for Chicago at http://www.tocatchadollar.com/choose/

By Marian Olson
April 01 at 11:19 pm

We hosted 2 theaters and had 35-40 in attendance at each.  People were very excited about the possibilities of microfinance, and several people said that they had friends who were interested, but not able to attend on Thursday night.  We will definitely buy the DVD to show to other groups as soon as it comes out.  Nine people signed up to find out more about RESULTS.

By Delores Lyons
April 01 at 5:23 pm

I forgot to add that after the movie, 38 people signed our sign-up sheets expressing interest in RESULTS activities. Yea!

By Delores Lyons
April 01 at 5:21 pm

I am a RESULTS volunteer and I am so happy to say that our screening at the Birmingham 8 Theaters in Birmingham, MI was a wonderful event. roughly 70 people attended and the people were quite engaged in the movie. The theater had to usher us out of the theater because people were so engaged in discussion. The 2 primary questions were: “When are we going to show this again?” And, “Where can we get the DVD?” People were talking about wanting to have their own viewings and discussion. Detroit had 2 micro-lending agencies which surprised many. It was truly a nice event.

By Lily French
April 01 at 4:29 pm

I attended the screening in Coralville, Iowa. There were not any activities before or after the film; it felt just list any other movie at the cinema… as far as the experience of seeing a film. There were between 30-40 people in the theater. Everyone stayed for the whole viewing, including the panel that followed the documentary (except 2 people who left after the film before the recorded panel).

As we left the theater, people were talking with the person who watched it with them… not much to strangers, but at least amongst themselves.

I saw this film with my son and husband. We had a great talk on the way home about the film and were so inspired by it we got on Kiva’s and Grameen Bank’s websites that night. My said he wished he had told more of his friends about this. We’ll definitely try to have a viewing at our house once it is out on DVD. The potential behind these programs is immense. This could end poverty through expanding prosperity… truly. I don’t see any negative repercussions of barriers to this.

I do think Grameen and Kiva should think about pairing up… in the sense that Kiva is an excellent tool for accessing capital, and Grameen needs it to start up their teams. Except I recognize there are inconsistent elements to their programs—in Grameen, the team decides who gets the loan, and once the money is in the circle, it keeps going forward; it does not come back. With Kiva, the “investor” can get their money back if they choose and they also decide who gets the capitol.

I want to help bring Grameen America to Iowa!

By Cynthia Tschampl
April 01 at 2:11 pm

We had a late addition, Boston screening at the Stuart Street Playhouse. 202 people came! And we had an action table out in the lobby, which generated 35 hand-written letters on the Saver’s Bonus to the two Senators and four Representatives. People were thanking us left and right because they loved the film and they loved the event!

By bpreville
April 01 at 1:17 pm

This is an important movie.  It shows the human side of what it takes to empower people to lift themselves out of poverty, the practical and creative cultivation of the talents and dreams of all people. People are left wanting to get involved.

We had a sell-out crowd of 235 and are looking forward to follow-up and our Apr 21 GPP presentation of “1.2 Billion Reasons.”  We are in a room with 200 capacity.  Part of what we are looking at is - how we would engage a dozen new Partners.  Any suggestions?

By Paul Hoffinger
April 01 at 12:18 pm

Miniscule (about 20 folks), yet diverse, group of people, some of whom carried the conversation out into the parking lot after the film.  I “harvested” names and contact info from 11 folks who think I’m sending them a ballot to choose Minneapolis as the next project site.  I hadn’t read the attachment
Annie Hung had sent out, and I have to clean that up, and will be in touch with people to do that and invite them to take AN action short of that popular, geocentric purpose.  I will mention that RESULTS is mentioned in the credits, and that Muhammad Yunus is on our board, and that we did a lot to support the showing of the movie.  Passed out 20 brochures, and have the rest to use for fundraisers and other functions.  It gives us a great excuse to have some kind of bang-up, outreach event next.

I actually love the frankenss with which Suze (I want to pronounce it “Sooz”) Orman said that many of the disappeared jobs in our economy, may not come back [in the form they were once in], and that this initiative is a great way to involve many people, help families survive, and rescue our economy.  That resonated like the truth for me.

By Anne Child
April 01 at 11:05 am

It was fun in Austin.  Both Whole Planet Foundation (foundation for Whole Foods Company) and RESULTS had a table and introduced the film.  Yesterday as we were coordinating this I mentioned to the To Catch A Dollar people that the theater was sold out.  About an hour later they called back saying that the Alamo gave us a bigger theater!  We didn’t pack it but had a good turnout.  Everyone stayed until the very end and they were excited about the prospect of microcredit in America. I thing one fellow, Keith, is really serious about getting his financial group to set up a branch here.  We made some good contacts… and just really enjoyed the film.  Everyone should see it… www.tocatchadollar.com.

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