Free Money
by Lauren Defillipo & Sam Soko
2024, Kenya, 94 mins
5:15 PM on Sept 22, 2024
About the movie
English: When universal basic income (UBI) comes to the Kenyan village of Kogutu, lives are forever changed. GiveDirectly, one of the fastest growing nonprofits of the 21st century, is sending free money for twelve years as part of the world’s largest UBI experiment. Filmmakers Lauren DeFilippo and Sam Soko juxtapose the story of these young economists, bankrolled by Silicon Valley and convinced that they have found an infallible algorithm to end world poverty, with portraits of local Kenyans whose lives are being dramatically impacted for better and for worse.
Français: Lorsque le revenu de base universel (RBU) arrive dans le village kenyan de Kogutu, les vies changent à jamais. GiveDirectly, l’une des organisations à but non lucratif à la croissance la plus rapide du 21e siècle, envoie de l’argent gratuitement pendant douze ans dans le cadre de la plus grande expérience de RBI au monde. Les réalisateurs Lauren DeFilippo et Sam Soko juxtaposent l’histoire de ces jeunes économistes, financés par la Silicon Valley et convaincus d’avoir trouvé un algorithme infaillible pour mettre fin à la pauvreté dans le monde, avec des portraits de Kenyans locaux dont les vies sont bouleversées pour le meilleur et pour le pire.
About the directors
Lauren DeFilippo
When I saw a New York Times article titled “The Future of Not Working,” I knew something groundbreaking was happening. A nonprofit funded by some of the biggest names in Silicon Valley was planning to experiment by giving a universal basic income (UBI) to villages in Kenya in order to study the effects over twelve years. I had many immediate questions: Who was this NGO? Why were they doing this? And could this actually be a long-awaited solution to global inequality? I was able to secure exclusive access to GiveDirectly, and began filming as they arrived in one of the villages with the promise of free money. My previous film had followed another experiment about what life will be like on Mars, so the idea of people acting out a bold concept was familiar, but this wasn’t scientists pretending to be on another planet— this was happening in Kenya with real lives at stake. And while I understood the context from the American side, the one for this village across the globe felt incredibly foreign. The idea of Westerners experimenting on poor Kenyans had been shocking to me from the start, and it was a critical piece of the film I wanted to make, but after being in the village for a few weeks, I realized I couldn’t express their side of the story without someone who knew that experience deeply. Enter Sam Soko.
Sam Soko
Born and raised in rural Kenya, I am naturally suspicious of any kind of foreign engagement coming into the country. Especially a group that says they want to offer free money with no strings attached. My previous work centered on local citizens reckoning with colonial and post-independence political challenges in Kenya. I know first-hand the continuing struggle against the effects of colonialism, especially poverty. In Africa, countless nonprofits have arrived with the promise of improving lives but instead have left many people in a devastating limbo, often worse off than they were before. So much money has been wasted on the organizations themselves. This is what made this story surprising to me. GiveDirectly was trying to solve poverty through a methodology that claimed to give people a new kind of agency. I was skeptical, but also intrigued and wondered, could this be true? After a few meetings with Lauren and a visit to the village, I was hooked.
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