Free Money
Lauren DeFilippo and Sam Soko’s sympathetic documentary takes a balanced view of an American enterprise to aid Kenyans in need of financial support.
The directorial credit for this documentary feature is shared by Lauren DeFilippo and Sam Soko and it could not be more appropriate that she is American while he comes from Kenya. The reason for saying that lies in the fact that Free Money is a film which studies the impact made on the Kenyan village of Kogutu through the work of the American nonprofit organisation GiveDirectly set up in 2008. It's a charity aimed at helping those who live in areas of extreme poverty in East Africa and the special feature of its aid is that it makes weekly unconditional payments direct to those that it assists, the transfers being made to them via mobile phones with which they are provided. Uganda and Rwanda in particular are additional beneficiaries of the scheme, but this film made over three years or so opts to concentrate on the impact that it has made in this one Kenyan village. However, it's a long-term endeavour designed to take place initially over twelve years. Consequently, how successful it is in improving the lives of these villagers is not expected to be fully assessed until 2031 and that makes this film something of an interim report.
The main office of GiveDirectly is in Manhattan and one of its founders, Michael Faye, is featured here. He explains how it was set up (in seeking funding they found Google receptive to a degree that they had not anticipated) and viewers will undoubtedly sympathise with this endeavour to get money to those in need by the simplest and most direct mode. But, if Free Money is approving of the aim, it is not intended as a totally uncritical endorsement of GiveDirectly. Faye himself seen in American footage comes over well, but the greater part of the film was shot on location in Kenya (if the material from the USA is mainly archive or talking heads, it is the African footage which makes this film cinematic). In providing an insightful look at the lives of those in Kogutu, the film puts its most extended focus on two families and on two youngsters within those families, John who uses the money he gets to study in Nairobi but whose experiences fall short of his hopes and Jael who suffers from being designated as not qualifying for help. If Jael’s situation shows how difficult it is to question the system and to be sure that the decision was justified, Free Money also portrays the resentment of inhabitants of an apparently poorer village near to Kogutu the location of which fell outside the scheme.
Free Money is a film which successfully seeks to focus on GiveDirectly in a balanced way. Having co-directors from Kenya and America may have helped in that, and it is equally apt that the one journalist we see visiting Kogutu and talking to the inhabitants is Larry Maddowo who is based in the USA and has worked for the BBC but is Kenyan. Arguably to concentrate on one village, and to some extent on two families, has both its pros and cons. One misses to some extent not having a wider overall view of the charity’s range and history, but the focus does invite the viewer to identify with the villagers generally and with the two families in particular. In any case one does get a good sense of contemporary life in Kogutu and a clear view of what GiveDirectly is trying to do. The film probably gains from being a compact work and, if it points out some of the imperfections and drawbacks inherent in what GiveDirectly does, it also endorses the desire of its founders to bring more effective aid to people in need. However, the most heartwarming sequence in the film is one which shows the villagers who have benefited putting aside some of the money and using it to help those among them who are most in need.
MANSEL STIMPSON
Featuring Michael Faye, Larry Maddowo, Jael Rael Achieng Songa, John Omondi Igunde, Caroline Teti, Emma Akinyi Okoth, Syprose Okela Songa, Mary Anyango Songa, Janet Okoth Omondi, Andrew Yang.
Dir Lauren DeFilippo and Sam Soko, Pro Amanda Pollak, Jordan Fudge, Jeremy Allen, Lauren DeFilippo and Sam Soko, Ph Vanessa Carr, Nyasha Kadandara and Wambui ‘Bo’ Muigai, Ed Ryan Mullins, Raúl Santos and Mila Aung-Thwin, Music Eduardo Aram.
Insignia Films/New Slate Ventures/LBX Africa/Retro Report Films-Dogwoof Releasing.
78 mins. Kenya/USA. 2022. UK Rel: 21 April 2023. Cert. PG.
