Uploaded March 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Acton Institute hosted a private, invite-only prescreening of Poverty Trap at the historic River Oaks Theatre in Houston, TX — and the conversation it sparked was extraordinary.
In this video, you'll hear directly from filmmakers Michael Matheson Miller and Simon Scionka, along with powerful testimonials from Houston audience members who experienced the film firsthand.
Learn more about Poverty Trap: povertytrapfilm.com
POVERTY TRAP is a new film about how big plans to end poverty broke the American Dream. Examining America’s largest anti-poverty efforts—urban renewal, public housing, welfare, and public assistance—the film reveals how sweeping policies reshaped neighborhoods and created lasting barriers.
Concentrated poverty, homelessness, incarceration, food deserts, work disincentives, and bureaucratic penalties left many communities isolated and excluded. Through powerful stories and on-the-ground voices, the film connects these systemic failures to cycles that keep families stuck. Yet it also spotlights community leaders advancing local, human-centered solutions that restore opportunity, strengthen neighborhoods, and redefine pathways to lasting prosperity.
The Acton Institute is a think-tank whose mission is to promote a free and virtuous society characterized by individual liberty and sustained by religious principles.
This direction recognizes the benefits of a limited government, but also the beneficent consequences of a free market. It embraces an objective framework of moral values, but also recognizes and appreciates the subjective nature of economic value. It views justice as a duty of all to give the one his due but, more importantly, as an individual obligation to serve the common good and not just his own needs and wants.
In order to promote a more profound understanding of the coming together of faith and liberty, Acton involves members of religious, business, and academic spheres in its various seminars, publications, and academic activities. It is our hope that by demonstrating the compatibility of faith, liberty, and free economic activity, religious leaders and entrepreneurs can contribute by helping to shape a society that is secure, free, and virtuous.
Visit our website: acton.org
Subscribe to the Acton Line Podcast: acton.org/acton-line
Visit the Acton Bookshop: shop.acton.org
Follow Acton on Facebook: facebook.com/ActonInstitute
Follow Acton on Twitter: twitter.com/ActonInstitute
Follow Acton on Instagram: instagram.com/acton_institute
#PovertyTrap #Documentary #Houston
Acton Institute hosted a private, invite-only prescreening of Poverty Trap at the historic River Oaks Theatre in Houston, TX — and the conversation it sparked was extraordinary.
In this video, you'll hear directly from filmmakers Michael Matheson Miller and Simon Scionka, along with powerful testimonials from Houston audience members who experienced the film firsthand.
Learn more about Poverty Trap: povertytrapfilm.com
POVERTY TRAP is a new film about how big plans to end poverty broke the American Dream. Examining America’s largest anti-poverty efforts—urban renewal, public housing, welfare, and public assistance—the film reveals how sweeping policies reshaped neighborhoods and created lasting barriers.
Concentrated poverty, homelessness, incarceration, food deserts, work disincentives, and bureaucratic penalties left many communities isolated and excluded. Through powerful stories and on-the-ground voices, the film connects these systemic failures to cycles that keep families stuck. Yet it also spotlights community leaders advancing local, human-centered solutions that restore opportunity, strengthen neighborhoods, and redefine pathways to lasting prosperity.
The Acton Institute is a think-tank whose mission is to promote a free and virtuous society characterized by individual liberty and sustained by religious principles.
This direction recognizes the benefits of a limited government, but also the beneficent consequences of a free market. It embraces an objective framework of moral values, but also recognizes and appreciates the subjective nature of economic value. It views justice as a duty of all to give the one his due but, more importantly, as an individual obligation to serve the common good and not just his own needs and wants.
In order to promote a more profound understanding of the coming together of faith and liberty, Acton involves members of religious, business, and academic spheres in its various seminars, publications, and academic activities. It is our hope that by demonstrating the compatibility of faith, liberty, and free economic activity, religious leaders and entrepreneurs can contribute by helping to shape a society that is secure, free, and virtuous.
Visit our website: acton.org
Subscribe to the Acton Line Podcast: acton.org/acton-line
Visit the Acton Bookshop: shop.acton.org
Follow Acton on Facebook: facebook.com/ActonInstitute
Follow Acton on Twitter: twitter.com/ActonInstitute
Follow Acton on Instagram: instagram.com/acton_institute
#PovertyTrap #Documentary #Houston
