My First Bona-Fide Film Screening: Heading to New York City for To Catch a Dollar Event Tonight


March 9, 2011
by Meredith Dodson, Director of U.S. Poverty Campaigns

I’m heading up to the Big Apple today for a star-studded event this evening.  To Catch a Dollar: Muhammad Yunus Banks on America follows women borrowers who are participating in domestic microfinance programs here in the U.S., pioneered by Nobel laureate and RESULTS Board member Muhammad Yunus. RESULTS is a national partner in the release of this film. The screening tonight will include a panel moderated by CNBC’s Maria Bartiromo with Nobel Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus, Kiva.org President Premal Shah and special guest, financial powerhouse Suze Orman, and they’ll explore poverty and financial literacy in America, and the role we all can play in creating a new American dream. The event will also include video appearances by Hugh Jackman, Matt Damon, Russell Simmons and many others. I’m feeling a bit intimidated (I am much more an inside-the-Beltway person than a Hollywood or even New York City type), but I am thinking about the awesome RESULTS network who will be there in spirit, and imagine our activists actively engaged in 20+ communities across the country when the documentary and panel is simulcast on March 31.

To help with the promotion of the film and subsequent campaign, To Catch a Dollar has officially launched its website at www.tocatchadollar.com. The film will be released on at least 190 theaters around the country and the website now has an online list of all the theaters by state. To coincide with this, our March Action focuses on doing outreach with others on asset development strategies for ending poverty. Specifically, the action asks volunteers to draft an EPIC Laser Talk that highlights the importance of building savings and assets as a means to get and stay out of poverty. The Action also highlights our main focus of our assets campaign this year, the Saver’s Bonus. RESULTS media specialist Jove Oliver will be hosting a media training call on Tuesday, March 15, to help with volunteers with To Catch a Dollar events. The training is designed to help you promote To Catch A Dollar and RESULTS in your local media. This is a great opportunity to learn some great techniques from a media expert. The call is Tuesday, March 15 at 9:00 pm ET. To participate, call (712) 432-3100 and enter passcode 761262.

TAKE ACTION: Connect your RESULTS work with others in your community by hosting an event in your city around the March 31 To Catch a Dollar film release. Look to see if there is a screening near you and if so, contact me (RESULTS Director of Domestic Campaigns Meredith Dodson: [email protected]) so I can help your group connect with the theatre (for tabling or other activities), other local partners in the campaign, as well as provide support and materials. You can also find a number of RESULTS promotional materials on the RESULTS website, including:

We will discuss upcoming outreach opportunities and our early childhood campaign on the March 2011 Domestic National Conference Call — Saturday, March 12, at 12:30 pm ET. To participate, call (888) 409-6709 with your group by 12:28 pm ET. Ted Richane, director of Cause & Effect, which is coordinating the overall campaign around the release of To Catch a Dollar, will be a guest speaker on the March Call.

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