Al Jazeera America has collaborated with Kartemquin Films in the production of Hard Earned, a six-part documentary series that follows five low-income families throughout the U.S. Production has already begun on the series, which is expected to air in early 2015.
The series will feature two families from Chicago as well as families from San Francisco, Washington D.C. and Milwaukee. All five families will appear in each episode, depicting the reality of living on low wages in places with high expenses.
“In the last year, we’ve seen low-wage work move to the forefront of the national conversation. This shift gives us an opportunity to take the conversation a step further and look at the consequences of low-wage work on employees, their families and their communities,” said Gordon Quinn, series executive producer and Kartemquin co-founder, in a release.
Quinn executive produces the series alongside Kartemquin’s Steve James and Justin Nagan.
“Low wage jobs are the fastest growing sector of employment in the American economy,” said James, “Yet the challenges of living on eight, ten or even 15 dollars an hour are invisible to many Americans.”
Al Jazeera America has a documentaries unit and network president Kate O’Brian has said she’s trying to establish the network as “a place where you get really great documentaries.” The network’s most recent documentary programming includes Borderland, a four-part series covering illegal immigration.
