Water Cultures: discovering the meaning of water through film
SOLD OUT
For this year’s ESRC Festival of Social Science the RAI’s Education Outreach Programme is organising a series of evening film screenings and discussions with anthropologists on water, conservation and community. We hope that the debates and ideas shared at the screenings will build momentum and curiosity to investigate the subject further at our main event: The Meaning of Water on 20th March 2010.
Dates: Tuesday 16th March, Wednesday 17th March and Thursday 18th March 2010.
Time: 6:30pm-8:30pm
Location: Upstairs screening room at the Royal Anthropological Institute, 50 Fitzroy Street, London W1T-5BT. Click here for directions.
Description: Water Cultures offers participants an opportunity to take a glimpse at the lives of people whose livelihoods are being threatened by fresh water scarcity, and who are drawing upon local knowledge to find solutions to their predicament.
Format: Brief introduction about the ESRC Festival of Social Science, the film and the filmmaker, followed by the screening and Q&A session.
TUESDAY 16th MARCH 2010
6:30 pm screening followed by Q&A with André Singer
THE WATER GODDESS AND THE COMPUTER
Filmmakers: André Singer and Stephen Lansing
colour, 52 minutes, 1989
The film demonstrates how in Bali, development projects can threaten a carefully balanced ecological irrigation system that is maintained by temple priests. A biologist and an anthropologist look at the traditional irrigation system and show through the use of a computer how it works. They then present the computer system to the temple priests as an aid to explore the effect of changes in the traditional irrigation system.
WEDNESDAY 17th March
6:30pm screening followed by Q&A with Hugh Brody
DROWNED OUT
Director: Franny Armstrong
colour, 72 mins, 2002
An Indian family decide to stay at home and drown rather than make way for the Narmada Dam. Three choices: Move to the slums in the city; accept a place at a resettlement site; or stay at home and drown. The people of Jalsindhi in central India must make a decision fast. In the next few weeks, their village will disappear underwater as the giant Narmada Dam fills. Bestselling author Arundhati Roy joins the fight against the dam and asks difficult questions such as: Will the water go to poor farmers or to rich industrialists? What happened to the 16 million people displaced by fifty years of dam building? Why should I care? Drowned Out follows the Jalsindhi villagers through hunger strikes, rallies, police brutality and a six year Supreme Court case. It stays with them as the dam fills and the river starts to rise.
THURSDAY 18th March
6:30pm screening followed by Q&A with Joshka Wessel
LITTLE WATERFALL
Filmmaker: Joshka Wessel
52 mins, 2003
“Little Waterfall” is a small village on the edge of the desert in Northern Syria. Life in Little Waterfall is made possible by the use of a 1500-year old Byzantine water tunnel. However, decades of migration and family conflicts caused the tunnels’ maintenance to be ignored. Mohammed Musa spent all his life in Little Waterfall. He does not have irrigation rights and he resents the way irrigation rights are sold by others. He undertakes a project to clean the tunnel in order to safeguard the water supply, and pursue his own interests.
Further information:
• All three nights are free to attend, everyone is welcome. Please book your place in advance as spaces are limited.
• Snacks and drinks will be provided.
• To find out more about our Meaning of Water event visit: www.discoveranthropology.org.uk
This event is now sold out.
