About

Living on One Dollar is a film and journey that follows our own experience living on $1 a day for two months in rural Guatemala.

We battle intense hunger, parasites and the realization that there are no easy answers, but find hope in the inspiring lives of our neighbors Rosa, a 20-year-old woman, and Chino, a 12-year-old boy.

While in Guatemala, we released short YouTube videos about the experience to help our friends learn alongside us in real time. The videos quickly received over 700,000 views, inspiring us to complete a feature-length film, Living on One Dollar, to mobilize others to help end extreme poverty.

To our amazement, the film has since won Best Documentary at the Sonoma International Film Festival, and received endorsements from Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus, USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah, and the Director of the Hunger Games, Gary Ross.

Watch the film today, host a presentation in your school or community, and please consider donating to support our friends in Pena Blanca!

Also if you want to watch more, check out our other films, Rosa – These Storms and Salam Neighbor.

 

About the Producers

Optimist uses immersive storytelling to create films, television series, and educational content combined with targeted social impact campaigns to inspire action around pressing global issues. By engaging a young and social media savvy audience, we have been able to create unprecedented awareness for important issues ignored by mainstream media. On all our films, we work with the best humanitarian organizations in the sector to provide opportunities for our audience to easily make a difference.