Our Dream of Water hits us with cold hard facts.
In 2015, Crystal Moselle gave us “The Wolfpack,” an award-winning biopic about the Angulo brothers who were raised entirely isolated in an LES apartment. This year, she presents us with another revelatory documentary, but of a wildly different subject: a film that exposes the global water crisis through the stories of three women who must bear the realities of the world’s neglect.
Our Dream of Water is short but packed. With a running time of less than fifty minutes, it nevertheless manages to capture the resilient spirit of three heroines, and their individual stories centered around the one big issue of water. Such issues have never been far from home, with concerns of the Flint, Michigan water crisis and the #NoNDPL protests that continue to shake our nation today.
The film opens in Yuncapata, Peru—inside a reservoir, which is the community’s only source of water. As they pull out a bucket of water from the reservoir, the Peruvian women laugh uncomfortably at the brown liquid that looks more like coffee or hot chocolate. This tragedy is contrasted by the bright and beautiful landscape of Peru, with its low sky and hills; a paradise with no water. Erika Sisaya, a young woman in the community whom the film follows, suddenly jerks with anger, “it makes me so upset.” Her face tightens and her voice trembles; Upset would be an understatement.
We watch as the community attempts to take their dire problem up to the water bureau—who merely emphasize the endless paperwork that must be completed in order to begin looking for a solution. They are essentially putting a pile of papers before helping a community gain access to a fundamental necessity.
In Kamwinzi Village, Kenya, we are introduced to an older woman who travels great distances everyday to acquire water; which she does so by digging up the ground till she reaches a small pool. What this documentary reveals is not only the prevalence of those suffering from lack of clean water, but also the miracle of how women of adversity remain so hopeful. The older woman is a part of a women’s group who all participate in learning and conducting small businesses—such as making ropes and catering for events around town. “When we get together with our women’s group,” she says, “I feel free.” Perhaps the activities are really to bound themselves together and share the collective sadness in their struggle with water.
The film then visits the village of Leveque, Haiti, where a singing midwife (balancing a pot on her head) is greeted by a group of children. There is something incredibly soothing and familiar in her lean voice and leaner figure. We learn as the camera follows her, that she is evidently someone who takes care of the village; a mother figure to the community, having delivered many of the children herself. So when villagers of Leveque continue to suffer from waterborne diseases like cholera from drinking poor water, the midwife bears the grief on her shoulders. The film divulges such realities of women around the globe, and their dream of water.
Our Dream of Water was commissioned as a part of Stella Artois’s “Buy a Lady a Drink” campaign, and is partnered with Water.org (co-founded by Matt Damon and Gary White). Tune-in to the premiere on National Geographic at 6:00 p.m. EST/PST on World Water Day, March 22.
