''The Divide'' is a 2015

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in te ...

directed by British filmmaker

Katharine Round Katharine Round is an English documentary filmmaker. She is co-founder of the production company Disobedient Films, and Doc Heads; a dedicated documentary screening organization that promotes the work of documentary filmmakers, with a focus on ...

. It was produced by Katharine Round and Christopher Hird.''The Spirit Level Documentary''
/ref> It is an adaptation of the acclaimed 2009 socio-economic book '' The Spirit Level'' by Richard G. Wilkinson and

Kate Pickett Kate Elizabeth Pickett (born 1965) is a British epidemiologist and political activist who is Professor of Epidemiology in the Department of Health Sciences at the University of York, and was a National Institute for Health and Care Research Ca ...

. The book argues that there are "pernicious effects that inequality has on societies: eroding trust, increasing anxiety and illness, (and) encouraging excessive consumption". Originally titled ''The Spirit Level'', The film ran a successful crowdfunding campaign through IndieGoGo, raising £70,000, £20,000 more than expected. The film was completed in 2015 and previewed that same year. It was released theatrically in the UK in April 2016. A US release is set to follow later in 2016. It was launched on

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fi ...

on October 3, 2016 with streaming capabilities for US and UK territories only. The film has appeared at several major film festivals including:

Sheffield Doc/Fest Sheffield DocFest (formerly styled Sheffield Doc/Fest), short for Sheffield International Documentary Festival (SIDF), is an international documentary festival and Marketplace held annually in Sheffield, England. The Festival includes film sc ...

(June 2015), Open City Film Festival in London(June 2015) where it was nominated for Best UK Film,

Cork Film Festival The Cork International Film Festival, also known as the Cork Film Festival (), is a film festival held annually in Cork City, Ireland. It was established in 1956 as part of An Tóstal An Tóstal (, meaning "The Gathering") was the name for a serie ...

(November 2015), and

ZagrebDox ZagrebDox is an international documentary film festival taking place in Zagreb every year, in late February / early March. Launched in 2005, the festival is intended to provide audiences and experts insight into recent documentary films, stimulate ...

Film Festival (February 2016).

Synopsis

As many Western countries have become richer, they've seemingly become unhappier; with fearful communities, health problems and violent deaths becoming more common not less. ''The Divide'' weaves together seven stories to paint a picture of how economic division creates social division. The film depicts the startling truth of struggling to make ends meet in America. Together, it ties the mentality that developed countries have become based around consumerism, materialism and the idea of happiness that these objects and actions should be in your life, despite that they seem to be perpetuating the individuals struggle. ''The Divide'' also showed that inequality can come from the people; how they view your "image", status, and neighborhood in which it can displayed either wealth or poverty.

Cast

*Alden Cass — an American Wall Street Psychologist *Jennifer Cooper — an American Gated community resident *Darren McGarvey — Scottish rapper Loki, a former

alcoholic Alcoholism is, broadly, any drinking of alcohol that results in significant mental or physical health problems. Because there is disagreement on the definition of the word ''alcoholism'', it is not a recognized diagnostic entity. Predomina ...

*Rochelle Monte — an English Careworker *Janet Sparks — an American

Walmart Walmart Inc. (; formerly Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.) is an American multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets (also called supercenters), discount department stores, and grocery stores from the United States, headquarter ...

associate *Leah Taylor — an American KFC attendant *Keith Thomas — an American Three-strikes prisoner * Kwame Anthony Appiah — commentator *

Rich Benjamin Rich Benjamin is an American cultural critic, anthropologist, and author. Benjamin is perhaps best known for the non-fiction book '' Searching for Whitopia: An Improbable Journey to the Heart of White America''. He is also a lecturer and a publ ...

— commentator *Richard Berman — commentator *

Alan Budd Sir Alan Peter Budd (born 16 November 1937) is a prominent British economist, who was a founding member of the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) in 1997. He left the MPC in May 1999, and between August 1999 and 2008 was Provo ...

— commentator *

Ha-Joon Chang Ha-Joon Chang (; ; born 7 October 1963) is a South Korean institutional economist, specialising in development economics. Chang is the author of several widely discussed policy books, most notably ''Kicking Away the Ladder: Development Strateg ...

— commentator *

Noam Chomsky Avram Noam Chomsky (born December 7, 1928) is an American public intellectual: a linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian, social critic, and political activist. Sometimes called "the father of modern linguistics", Chomsky i ...

— commentator *Richard Frank — commentator *Alexis Goldstein — commentator *

Max Hastings Sir Max Hugh Macdonald Hastings (; born 28 December 1945) is a British journalist and military historian, who has worked as a foreign correspondent for the BBC, editor-in-chief of ''The Daily Telegraph'', and editor of the ''Evening Standard'' ...

— commentator *

Michael Marmot Sir Michael Gideon Marmot (born 26 February 1945) is Professor of Epidemiology and Public Health at University College London. He is currently the Director of The UCL Institute of Health Equity. Marmot has led research groups on health inequa ...

— commentator *

Cathy O'Neil Catherine ("Cathy") Helen O'Neil is an American mathematician, data scientist, and author. She is the author of the ''New York Times'' best-seller '' Weapons of Math Destruction'', and opinion columns in Bloomberg View. O'Neil was active in th ...

— commentator *

— commentator *Paul Piff — commentator * Richard G. Wilkinson — commentator

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Divide, The (2015 film) 2015 films 2015 documentary films British documentary films British independent films British survival films 2015 independent films Films scored by Andrew Hewitt 2010s English-language films 2010s British films