Poor Consuelo Conquers The World

It all started by accident in 1969, when a Peruvian telenovela character worked her way out of poverty using a sewing machine; and suddenly sewing machines flew off the shelves by the thousands all over Peru. That incident, combined with the social modeling theories of psychologist Albert Bandura demonstrating the power of fictional media characters to act as role models and affect behavior of viewers, inspired a brilliant Mexican director named Miguel Sabido to create popular telenovelas designed both to entertain and to address urgent social issues. His first series was a huge commercial hit and demonstrably contributed to a significant decline in birthrates in heavily overpopulated Mexico. He revised and refined his formula until it became a scientific methodology that soon spread around the world with success after success, and ultimately helped create an entire field, now known as Entertainment-Education. Sabido essentially created an affordable, exportable model for socially sustainable development, all while creating hit show after hit show. Like Sabido’s work, our documentary Poor Consuelo Conquers the World is both entertaining and solution-oriented in its approach to social change.

Background

Storytelling, connecting with audiences via film and television with a goal of creating lasting social change is a core precept of the Stories of Change project. Poor Consuelo Conquers the World, looks at both the history and contemporary examples of educational entertainment from a global perspective, ranging from Bolivia to Mexico, India to South Africa, and even in the US. The focus of the work is on empowering the poor, and often illiterate, to make changes in their daily lives that improves their quality of life. As the creator of this form of storytelling, Miguel Sabido’s innovation was to formalize the age-old notion of telling stories to educate a broad public and adapt it for mass media in the form of tele-novels. He made it purposely entertaining but with specific aims that were often counter to the prevailing culture, addressing issues such as birth control and domestic violence.

The film was completed in November 2011, and will air on Arte France in 2012.

Related Links

• PCI-Media Impact

Director: Peter Friedman

Peter Friedman has been making documentaries since the 1980’s. His feature-length films include Mana-Beyond Belief (co-directed with Roger Manley), Death By Design, and Silverlake Life. After studying film at Hampshire College in Massachusetts, and at NYU and Columbia, Peter made his first films while working a day job as a film editor in New York. His first, Wizard of the Strings was nominated for an Academy Award in 1986. Most recently, he finished shooting Robert Carsen: The Devil is in the Details, an in-depth portrait of a great stage director at work. Peter’s eclectic choice of subjects reflects his interest in examining worldviews and mentalities.

Producer: Paul Miller

R. Paul Miller is producer of Snow Angels (2007), A Love Song for Bobby Long (2003), Prozac Nation (2000), Men with Guns (1998), and Lone Star (1993), as well as an associate producer on The Secret of Roan Inish (1994). In addition, Miller is currently Head of Production at Crossroads Films/The Deciders and a Partner at Escapist Pictures.

Social Entrepreneur: PCI-Media Impact

In 1984 the Father of Entertainment-Education (and our hero), Miguel Sabido, met with our founder and Indira Ghandi to launch a program in India. The program Hum Log, was a success: it soared to the top of entertainment charts and drew a regular viewing audience of more than 50 million people. It also began to shift family planning practices. We knew we were on to something, and so continued producing radio and television programs to promote family planning throughout Asia and Africa.

During one of these programs a young character, Shandi, asked a question on the radio drama Taru that echoed throughout Bihar, India: Why don’t I have a birthday? See, little girls in Bihar didn’t celebrate their birthdays. Only boys did. Over the course of a few weeks, Shandi, aided by a social worker, Taru, planned and hosted her birthday party. Soon after the broadcasts, girls throughout Bihar began to celebrate their birthdays.

But the change didn’t stop there. Birthdays were symbolic of other inequalities – who went to school, who ate first, who received the best medical care. These things started changing too. An entire village decided it was time for all little girls to receive an education, so that year little girls got to go with their brothers to school.

Each of our 100 programs has a Shandi, someone who asks the seemingly simple question that transforms a society. These stories have reached 1 billion people in 34 countries. That’s the power of Entertainment-Education. We think it’s pretty cool and invite you to learn more by watching the video below and exploring the rest of our website.

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