By Amy Lieberman
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| Zambian women learn how to use video cameras to produce documentary film (Photo courtesy Camfed) |
The heartbreaking, yet inspiring story resonated deeply with the women filmmakers, who felt the tale must be shared with the world.
They now have their opportunity to do so.
Where the Water Meets the Sky is a unique 60-minute documentary, divided as a story within a story: Camfed, a nonprofit organization devoted to educating African girls and villages, sent a team in 2006 and 2007 to Samfya, a rural town in northern Zambia. There, they selected a group of young women and trained them with video cameras, instructing them to tell their stories, channeled through one representative individual.
The result is striking and poignant, as the viewer watches the shy, reserved women quickly emerge from behind the lens and rise as strong, influential players in their community—all within the span of a few short weeks.
The film demonstrates the power of technology and media to transform individuals and villages alike, allowing hushed topics to rise to the surface, and into a public domain.
In this case, the women’s short film, titled I’ve Found My Way, focuses on two major taboos in the region: extended relatives seizing property from orphans, often left parentless because of HIV/AIDS, and child prostitution and the great risks and diseases that often accompany it.
The women’s production of I’ve Found My Way, a short film screened throughout Zambian villages, stands at the crux of Where the Water Meets The Sky’s seemingly simplistic power.
“This was new, because poor people in rural African communities might get spoken about or written about, but they are normally filmed as the backdrop of a film,” explained Ann Cotton, founder and executive of Camfed, told MediaGlobal. “But actually being the protagonists and the subjects, that was new and exciting and empowering.”
The women’s film was primarily used for local advocacy, overcoming the problem of how to engage communities and discuss potentially uncomfortable topics.
“Instead of saying, ‘Let’s talk about violence, today,’ because people aren’t going to necessarily do that, we tell people that there is going to be a film showing tonight, and that everyone is welcome, and we show a story that encapsulates that of other people,” Cotton said. “Then after the film we open the floor for a discussion or debate, and you see a really profoundly different quality of dialogue.”
The story at hand in Where the Water Meets the Sky, as well as I’ve Found My Way, is that of Penelop, a young woman who was orphaned by the age ten, when her parents both died of complications related to AIDS. Her older sister, the family’s subsequent main provider by means of prostitution, soon followed the same fate. Penelop’s father’s extended family stripped her and her siblings of all their possessions, leaving them barren.
Though her aunt takes her in, Penelop is forced to quit school and sell fish in the market. Her friends entice her with a more profitable position, they say—prostitution.
Penelop began selling her body for sex at the age of 14, but unlike her friends, insisted on using a condom with her male customers, a move she later attributes to saving her life.
When Penelop is 16, her aunt appeals to a school headmaster, who agrees to admit the young, bright girl into his school—of the 1,7000 pupils there, the headmaster notes, 500 of them are orphaned, largely because of HIV/AIDS, much like Penelop.
Penelop works alongside her fellow filmmakers, whose stories largely mimic Penelop’s, to recreate her tale.
“The filmmaking training was obviously important, but it was really a tool to help these women express themselves,” David Eberts, the co-director of Where the Water Meets the Sky, told MediaGlobal. “The trainers worked hard to give them technique, but not too much that it would become the focus.”
It was difficult for Penelop, she notes in the film, to speak openly about her history, but necessary, given the larger impact it might be able to have.
“What struck me during the filming process was how Penelop was, and we saw that she was the one who really encouraged the other women and galvanized the group, with allowing her story to be told,” Eberts said. “She kept saying to us that this is difficult, but it has to be done, and it is worth it if I can save one woman from going through the same fate that I did.”
During one remarkable scene in the documentary, Penelop visits a local HIV/AIDS clinic, her nervousness tangible, to get tested. The results are negative, but the moment clearly resonated with some Zambian audiences. Following one depicted screening of I’ve Found My Way, a young girl stands up asks if it’s true that if you have HIV/AIDS you will live a short life.
One Samfya filmmaker answers with force, telling the girl that yes, it is true, and that young people should not be afraid to visit the local HIV/AIDS clinic, that they must be aware of their health and status.
The production of I’ve Found My Way, as well as the filming of Where the Water Meets the Sky has empowered the Samfya Women Filmmakers, giving them a kind of celebrity status in their village, Cotton and Eberts say.
“We have found that giving women cameras and access to technology gives them a new status, as well as confidence and pleasure,” Cotton said. “We could see that change taking place through this process and we realized that was the biggest story here, the power of filmmaking as a tool to change individuals, and communities.”
Penelop now runs one of Camfed’s Information Technology stations in rural Zambia, and other filmmakers have continued their studies and received better paying jobs, said Eberts, who noted that he received an e-mail from one of the women, Abigail, just the other day.
Where the Water Meets the Sky was made available for order and public screenings in August. The goal is to bring it into classrooms, and to encourage a “new appreciation for the journey so many impoverished African young women have to go through,” Eberts said.
Where the Water Meets the Sky is Camfed’s first feature documentary, but not likely its last. Cotton noted that the organization has plans to replicate this model in other nations in the foreseeable future.