Paycheck to Paycheck Examines Women in the Workforce 1/31/2014 (Paycheck to Paycheck: The Life & Times of Katrina Gilbert Big Sky Festival)

​Paycheck to Paycheck
Examines Women in the Workforce
 
 
One of the free screenings that will be part of the big sky documentary film Festival that will occur on opening night, when HBO will sponsor is showing of “Paycheck to Paycheck: The Life and Times of Katrina Gilbert.“
 
The film follows a certified nursing assistant, and single mother of three, earning just over minimum wage and trying to make ends meet.
 
Filmmakers, Nick Doob and Shari Cookson made the film as part of a report put together by Maria Shriver that studies the conditions of working women and how they are disproportionately falling into poverty.
 
For their film, Doob and Cookson didn’t want to try to face poverty head-on, but instead, give poverty of face. “We made a film that would be a more personal story. We followed Katrina for about a year, to try and take people inside what it’s like to live her life,” Cookson said.
 
Gilbert uses a 24-hour subsidized childcare facility that allows her to work full-time. Many of the other people who use the center are women living below the poverty line. Without it, she would not be able to cover the cost of hiring care for her kids, Cookson said.
 
“This is a film about how small things can take over your life. How if you don’t prepare, especially as a woman, you can get yourself into problems,“ Doob said.
 
“If anything happens, if her tire goes, if she has a medical issue, if her house, floods, she has no pad,’ Cookson said. “And yet, she is very likable. She’s young. She’s vibrant. We didn’t want to make a film that was just ‘look at this person, isn’t this sad.’ She doesn’t just sit around and complain, she just lives.“
 
The screening of “Paycheck to Paycheck“ will be held the evening of February 15 in the Wilma theater. Doob and Cookson will also be present to answer questions about their film.
 
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The Missoulian
1/31/2014
Page 65
 
Dictated Transcription:  S Cookson