Poor Consuelo Conquers the World

All over the world, millions of viewers sit glued to their TV sets watching their favorite soap opera or telenovela. Back in the 1960s, Dr. Miguel Sabido came up with the idea that they would be a perfect way of bringing about shifts in society. His ideas were dismissed as harebrained, but this colorful Mexican was convinced that the masses could solve major global issues. He talks enthusiastically about the success of his first soap series, about an elderly man wanting to finish elementary school at all costs. Sabido claims that the series encouraged half a million adults to complete a government-run educational project. Other successful series followed, and in Poor Consuelo Conquers the World, Sabido and various experts on mass communication and psychology speak about the factors that contributed to the successes. Sabido's concept of using the soap as a vehicle for social change, with TV characters as role models, has been copied in recent decades in several countries in Asia, Africa and South America. Soaps provide the audience with the tools to tackle issues such as abuse, alcoholism, homosexuality and HIV. The initiative for these projects usually comes from NGOs. We hear touching personal testimonies, mostly from poor and vulnerable people, about actual improvements in their lives. The many soap scenes provide a lighter note, with their bombastic music, melodramatic situations and intense emotions. (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam)