Kickstarter

ABOUT THIS PROJECT

“I think sometimes that had I known she would not survive her illness, I might have written a different book – less a meditation on the absent parent, more a celebration of the one who was the single constant in my life. I know that she was the kindest, most generous spirit I have ever known, and that what is best in me I owe to her.” Excerpted from Dreams From My Father by Barack H. Obama

It turns out that President Barack Obama’s instincts for optimism and change is a family trait. He inherited it from his mother Stanley Ann Dunham. Ironically, however, the person who most influenced President Obama’s life is someone we know almost nothing about.

During her lifetime – cut short at the age of 52 by ovarian cancer in 1995 – Ann defied almost every accepted convention of what defined the American woman of her day. In 1961 when interracial marriages were still illegal in many part of the U.S., she married a black Kenyan man (Barack Obama, Sr.) at the tender age of 18. A year and a half later, when they divorced, Ann took on the role of “single parent” before that term had even been invented.

Now, had her untraditional motherhood defined the rest of her life, her story would still be the stuff of history if for no other reason that she gave birth to and raised the 44th, and first African-American, President of the United States, Barack H. Obama.

Ann, however, was much more. She was a pioneer in micro-finance, an international movement to end poverty by providing entrepreneurs in developing countries with small loans. Her Ph.D. dissertation – a culmination of 20 years of field study in villages of Indonesia – was instrumental in establishing this global program of economic sustainability. Today, thanks to Ann’s work as a scholar and policy analyst for the Ford Foundation and other institutions, 31 million households in Indonesia have been able to raise themselves out of poverty. In fact, Indonesian’s micro-finance program is the world’s largest and has become a model for all others.

In particular, Ann advocated on behalf of women in the developing world. Her remarkable legacy is that in 2010 women are now the primary recipients of all micro-credit loans worldwide.

STANLEY ANN DUNHAM – A MOST GENEROUS SPIRIT will be the first documentary film to explore the life of this fascinating, singular figure. It will be directed by celebrated filmmaker Charles Burnett, honored by Sundance Film Festival, National Society of Film Critics, Independent Spirit Awards, New York Film Critics Circle, Los Angeles Film Critics Assoc., the Film Society of Lincoln Center, The Library of Congress and the MacArthur Foundation.

This will be the definitive film by a seriously talented director about a woman who profoundly changed history. It will shine a much needed spotlight on the important work being achieved by micro-finance. But we need your help! Your contributions will help us complete the research & development phase of the film and place us on the path to begin principal photography. Thank you!