Where the Water Meets the Sky reviews
Review by on 29 Sep 2008
WHERE THE WATER MEETS THE SKY is another wonderful documentary to be found at the Cambridge Film Festival. And much like THE DANCING FOREST at the beginning of the Festival, this film presents some really positive advances in international development and improvement of life for some of the poorest people in Africa.
The documentary follows a Camfed – the Campaign for Female Education – project in northern Zambia. Women of all ages and social backgrounds are brought together by Camfed to learn how to operate camera and sound recording equipment and to discover how to make a short film. They then had to choose a story based upon the experiences of someone in the group to create a film to show in the local area.
The story they chose to tell was of a girl who became an orphan at a young age after both her parents died from AIDS. Her father's family stole their possessions, and in the end, the girl became a prostitute at the age of fourteen in exchange for food. She was rescued by the local headteacher who offered her a place at his school. The story was even more heartbreaking because a startling number of the other women had experienced it too. The proportion of children who lose both their parents to HIV/AIDS is massive. And when many orphaned girls are forced into very early marriage or prostitution in order to survive, the devastating cycle continues.
WHERE THE WATER MEETS THE SKY offers a lot of hope, however. The effect the film had on the thousands of women and men who came to the outdoor screenings in their villages was extremely moving. So many people had a similar story to tell and by opening these important issues up to public discussion, progress can be made. Men and women were debating the topics surrounding HIV and AIDS in public arenas, something never done before.
The dramatic social change the Camfed project was helping to foster was hard to believe. The women in the group gained confidence to speak up about these desperate problems and to take action to change the present condition. This documentary was not only visually stunning and full of respect for these women, but it also served to send an important message about film as a communicative medium for social change.
Becky Hawketts, Festival Daily
WHERE THE WATER MEETS THE SKY is another wonderful documentary to be found at the Cambridge Film Festival. And much like THE DANCING FOREST at the beginning of the Festival, this film presents some really positive advances in international development and improvement of life for some of the poorest people in Africa. The documentary follows a Camfed – the Campaign for Female Education – project in northern Zambia. Women of all ages and social backgrounds are brought together by Camfed to learn how to operate camera and sound recording equipment and to discover how to make a short film. They then had to choose a story based upon the experiences of someone in the group to create a film to show in the local area.
The story they chose to tell was of a girl who became an orphan at a young age after both her parents died from AIDS. Her father's family stole their possessions, and in the end, the girl became a prostitute at the age of fourteen in exchange for food. She was rescued by the local headteacher who offered her a place at his school. The story was even more heartbreaking because a startling number of the other women had experienced it too. The proportion of children who lose both their parents to HIV/AIDS is massive. And when many orphaned girls are forced into very early marriage or prostitution in order to survive, the devastating cycle continues.
WHERE THE WATER MEETS THE SKY offers a lot of hope, however. The effect the film had on the thousands of women and men who came to the outdoor screenings in their villages was extremely moving. So many people had a similar story to tell and by opening these important issues up to public discussion, progress can be made. Men and women were debating the topics surrounding HIV and AIDS in public arenas, something never done before.
The dramatic social change the Camfed project was helping to foster was hard to believe. The women in the group gained confidence to speak up about these desperate problems and to take action to change the present condition. This documentary was not only visually stunning and full of respect for these women, but it also served to send an important message about film as a communicative medium for social change.
Becky Hawketts, Festival Daily
Film details
Where the Water Meets the Sky
DOCUMENTARIES
Director: David Eberts
Director: Helen Cotton
Director: Helen Cotton
UK, 2008.
60 mins. English.
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