Where commercial banks see insolvency, Nobel Peace Prize–winning economist Muhammad Yunus sees opportunity. In the 1970s he launched the groundbreaking Grameen Bank in Bangladesh which was built on the radical notion that if you loan poor women money within the context of peer support, not only will they repay and sustain the bank, but they’ll elevate their communities in the process.
Today the programme has helped 7.5 million Bangladeshi borrowers and their families and Grameen is now audaciously importing its methods to the bastion of first-world capitalism – the U.S.A. First stop: Queens, New York.
With an intimate camera capturing both buoyant and despairing moments, To Catch a Dollar chronicles the evolution of the the first Grameen America microfinance branch. Will the solidarity principles translate to a diverse group of inner-city women? As the banking industry collapses, will these intrepid social-justice nonprofit financiers succeed?
