A PROGRAM FOR ALL

This research documentary looks at the cultural pertinence of the social welfare program "Oportunidades" within the indigenous population in Mexico. This video produced for The World Bank and SEDESOL and The Oportunidades program began in 1997 as a system of conditional cash transfers. It was expected that at the beginning of 2011 there would be 5.8 million beneficiaries, 99% of whom were women.

Oportunidades was a program that articulated incentives for education, health and nutrition in order to promote the economic mobility of families in extreme poverty. It has been estimated that more than 70% of the money received was used to increase the availability of food in the home.

The video looks deeply into normative values of diverse indigenous participants and how these values interface with Oportunidades. Issues of culture, identity, language, networks, bureaucracy and family disintegration can play a big role in both accessing and being able to keep up with the demands of this program.

This 48-minute ethnographic documentary. was part of an investigation carried out by CIESAS-Occidente, the research was led by Dr. Guillermo de la Peña. This film is a collaboration between artists Ana Torres Villarreal, Pablo de la Peña, researcher Joshua Greene and journalist Glynis Board.