Greg Polk, Documentary film maker and international development consultant
Thursday, June12th, 2025 – 4:00 p.m.
Botts Hall, Albuquerque Special Collections Library,
423 Central NE, Albuquerque, NM.
Our May lecture will feature a documentary and presentation on the “Courageous Women of Sri Lanka.” The film presents the story of how low-income women created and led a credit and savings association that has helped transform both individual lives and communities in Colombo Sri Lanka. Colombo is a microcosm of the global challenge to improve family incomes and upgrade low-income settlements within cities. There are over 1,300 informal settlements scattered throughout Colombo housing approximately 87,000 mostly extremely low-income families. The film is also a story of the resilience of women and communities despite 30 years of war and political and economic turmoil.
Greg Polk was project leader on a United Nations funded program to upgrade informal settlements in Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Tanzania and Ghana. In recent years he has taken up documentary film making and his films include New Mexicans Taking Action on Plastic Waste, Embroidered Connections: The Artisans of Bukhara, and Youth Star Cambodia: Growing Future Leaders. He is also founder and director of the New Mexico Documentary Incubator Grants Program (NMDIG). Greg holds a master’s degree in city planning from MIT and has worked in both the private and public sectors including as housing development director for the City of Albuquerque in the 1990s. During the last 20 years of his career, he worked as an international development consultant in countries in Africa, Asia and the Middle East.
$15 for AIA Members; $20 for Non-Members; Students under 30 with ID – Free.
Pay online or mail check made out to AIA by June10th to: AIA, PO Box 92921, Albuquerque, NM 87199.
