JOIN USVoices from the Waters, an international film festival and an open platform on water was held in the City recently.
The festival was held with an objective of ‘freeing’ water from mindless exploitation. It also aimed to educate the youth about the increasing scarcity of potable water and to engage them in the conservation of water.
The three-day festival, which was inaugurated at Alliance Francaise, had a host of events including movie screening sessions, art exhibition and a dialogue on the problems of water.
The film festival was a medium to affirm water as a fundamental human right and the source of all life and had movies on the same topic from several countries including Sweden, Kyrgyzstan, The Netherlands, Canada, South Africa, Italy, India etc. The festival had around 52 movies, which also included six films from Bangalore.
Some of the acclaimed documentaries screened at the festival included films like Addicted to Plastic, The Voice of the Mapuche, The Waters of Chenini, Centipede Sun, Cattle Camp, The Soul of Water, Be Water My Friend, Tranquil Streams, Go with the Flow among others.
Some of the movies from India were Once Upon a River, Chronicle of a Death, Parobas -The Émigré, Harida Nenapugalu, A Journey, Water, Winds of Change among many others. The highly praised and award-winning film The Damned Rain about farmer suicides in the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra was also screened.
The Voice of the Mapuche, from Chile was the last movie to be shown at the festival.
Other than a terrific selection of films, the festival also featured Water Voices which had four grassroot level water activists describing their work. The four speakers H A Kishore Kumar from Malnad, Hanumanthu and Hanumava from Badami and C Nataraj from Doddaballapur, narrated stories about their personal struggles in the name of
water.
These sessions were an eye-opener for many who still remain unaware about the power struggles over water in many areas in the country.
The festival was attended by many young students as well as the old people of the City.
They not only found the event informative but also very engaging. The three-day festival provided a dynamic platform for the youth, activists, artists and the public to come together to have a meaningful dialogue and also to create awareness on water related
issues.