Soulbird is pleased to announce its sponsorship of Elaine Power’s new documentary Life on the Cheque, a feature-length documentary film that will profile six mothers in Kingston, Ontario, living in poverty.

Soulbird’s official statement of sponsorship:

Soulbird aims to give a voice to the those who are suffering injustice. We are very pleased to support the making of Soulbird Elaine Power’s social critique documentary Life on the Cheque. We are excited about the anti-poverty organizing and other social action possibilities offered by this project upon its completion. In the relatively affluent North American society, poverty is very often a much-overlooked social and economic injustice, especially for women and children who are living in circumstances that sometimes further prevent and stigmatize them from emerging from lifelong struggles with poverty. In supporting Life on the Cheque, Soulbird hopes to bring the poignant portraits of single mothers living in poverty, to a wider public that may not be aware of this social and economic injustice, and to engage diverse communities in an ongoing discourse about ways to combat poverty – not just in North America, but around the world.

Elaine Power, Director, Writer, and Producer of Life on the Cheque, is an assistant professor in the School of Kinesiology and Health Studies at Queen’s University in Kingston (Ontario, Canada), where she teaches and researches the interactions between poverty, food and health.

In anticipation of the forthcoming documentary, Power stated:

I am thrilled that the dream of filming Life on the Cheque is taking shape and very grateful for the support that Soulbird is providing. Filming, screening and distributing Life on the Cheque will help fulfill a promise I made to the women who participated in my earlier research project to spread the word about what it’s like to live in poverty and to fight for change. I believe that most Canadians still care about one another and the kind of society in which we live, resisting the neo-liberal idea of “everyone for themselves”. I hope Life on the Cheque will inspire all those who see it to advocate for a more supportive social safety net for Canadians who live in poverty.

Life on the Cheque will begin filming on June 16, 2008.  For more information, please visit the film’s project page.  To make a contribution to the film’s budget, please visit indiegogo.com/lifeonthecheque.