Frontline: Two American Families (Documentary - Bill Moyers host)

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/two-american-families/



Since 1992, FRONTLINE has been following the fortunes of two working families from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. This 90-minute film, the fourth instalment in a documentary 20 years in the making, was hailed by Variety magazine as "a potent treatise on the US's strugging middle class".

The story began in 1992 as the breadwinners of both families – the Stanleys and the Neumanns – lost their well-paid factory jobs in the face of the new global economy. As their American dream began to fall apart, the families – one white, one black – fought against the slide into poverty as they struggled to find work and keep their homes and health insurance intact, while building a future for their children. This intimate portrait of two families also exposes a worrying trend in western economies as manufacturing is outsourced to cheaper nations. In the 12 years since the last instalment (2000's Surviving the Good Times) the US has witnessed – some say triggered – a global recession and 50 million Americans are now living in poverty, with low-wage, part-time work the best that many can get. In this new reality, how will our families fare?