Film - The Well: Water Voices From Ethiopia

The Well: Water Voices From Ethiopia
The Borana herders' journey to the "singing" wells
 
The multi-award winning film is a highly cinematic, visually enthralling film by Paulo Barberi and Riccardo Russo. Screened at more than 90 festivals all over the world,The Well is the most awarded Italian documentary of 2013. Winner of Best Cinematography and Sound Editing at the 2013 Social Impact Media Awards (SIMA).

The film follows the life of the Borana, a semi nomadic population in the south of Ethiopia that struggle perennially for survival. During the long periods of annual drought, the Borana gather with their livestock around ancient wells, the only resource against the tragic effects of global climate change. Huge hand-excavated craters, known as “singing wells”, allow them to survive during the long yearly droughts. With its strong photography and its epic narration, the film follows their life during a whole dry season, showing a unique equitable water management system through that allows them to manage the little available water as the property and right of everyone.

While all around the world, access to drinkable water is still not considered a fundamental human right, the Borana’s extraordinary system guarantees general and indiscriminate access to water in one of the driest inhabited regions on Earth.

Closer home, the film resonates with many remote northern communities for whom access to clean water is still a luxury.
Presented by The Resources, Economy, and Society Research Group (RESRG) Lakehead University and the Department of History as part of International Development Week.

Date: Thursday, 4 February 2016
Time: 8:00 pm
venue: 314 Bay Street (Above the Hoito)
Ticket: 8 dollars or pay what you can.
There will be an opportunity for the audience to share ideas and comments after the film.