'Where the Water Meets the Sky,' Filming the Cure for AIDS

Even after the 1980s came to an end, the United States still reeled from the early days of the AIDS epidemic. And even for those among the educated middle-class suburbs of New Jersey, questions remained. I still hadn't been sufficiently convinced that I couldn't catch the deadly virus from sitting on the wrong toilet seat.

In 1991, as the editor-in-chief of my high school's newspaper, I was invited to attend a statewide conference on HIV/AIDS. The idea was for each of us to return to our individual hometowns and share what we had learned with our fellow students — and presumably our teachers and parents.

I'd given little thought to that experience until having the opportunity to see Where Water Meets the Sky, a documentary about a group of women in a remote village in Zambia where the girls don’t have the luxury of conferences or summits. In fact, most of them don’t get to go to school at all. But through an initiative called Camfed on Film, a program funded by the Campaign for Female Education, a nonprofit fighting poverty and HIV/AIDS in Africa by educating girls, some of them have been given the rare opportunity to learn to make a film — and the even more unique opportunity to become agents of social change.

In partnership with local filmmakers, Abibata Mahama and Dominique Chadwick, Camfed went to Ghana in 2004 to begin training 21 women. They formed a group called The Learning Circle, and have since produced six films. Inspired by the success of the Ghanaian women, Camfed took their show to Samfya, Zambia, an impoverished fishing community.

Where Water Meets the Sky follows the Samfya Women Filmmakers in their first attempt to make a short film: Nsanga Inshila (I've Found My Way). Narrated by Morgan Freeman, it tells the story of 18-year-old Penelope Machipi, orphaned by AIDS, struggling to survive. Right on time for World AIDS Day, the film punctuates the simple fact that educating girls and women will change their fate, as Penelope and the other women journey from picking up a camera for the first time, to screening their work to literally thousands of people.

 

Why Filmmaking?

At first blush, filmmaking seems like an implausible, perhaps extravagant, solution for people living without running water or electricity, in communities where women are discouraged from speaking their minds. The project revealed, however, that otherwise unimaginable access to opportunity and technology allowed these women to produce quite remarkable, and contrary, results.

After a screening of the film Tuesday night in New York, Camfed Founder and Executive Director Ann Cotton explained why film can make such a big impact.

"It [filmmaking] is an incredibly powerful tool, the film becomes a mediator for issues; seeing the transformation in the young women participating is really what we wanted to capture in this film," she says. "In Ghana, where we began, what we saw happening when given the opportunity and technology they never thought they’d have access to, that transformational process really took place — particularly for women who don’t have the opportunity to speak up. They are marginalized, they have stories, they have wonderful extraordinary rich lives, but they don't believe in the richness of their lives. When they begin to see their stories on film, they begin to believe."

But before they can tell their stories, women first need to be shown that they even have stories to be told — and that requires trust. Abibata Mahama, a teacher and producer, humbly claims to provide little more than technical assistance and perhaps a little guidance. After working together for a few days, she explains how the women begin to open up, understanding that they truly have something to say — something that might really matter.

"The issues are issues that affect many women and children in the communities, and they want to see a change. And so most people see them on the streets in the community. They identify with them, they know who they are and they see them as part of the community. And they are really happy and proud, and feel they are really contributing to change," says Mahama. Enabling women to own their experiences and share them, gives them access to a very effective tool: the power of example.

 

The Process

Perhaps not surprisingly, village men aren't always thrilled at the prospect of their women taking off on a filmmaking adventure. Who would clean, cook and look after the children? Knowing that men they'd likely try to squeeze their way to the front of the filmmaking line, Abibata and the others from Camfed affirmed: "women first." Unaccustomed to such opportunity and positive attention, the women were also skeptical, not to mention timid.

That soon passed, however. Despite being shy, participants wanted to try everything new to them. Without an education, there is little employment for women beyond fishing, prostitution or selling goods in the market, so the prospect of holding a camera, a boom mike, directing or acting overwhelmed most of the women.

"Mostly people go for the camera, that’s what they want. Or somebody will just get in front of the camera, 'I want to be an actor. I want to sing.' And they start doing that," says Abibata. "But as you go on, and they start practicing, then you see that people want to do certain things. Somebody will say, 'I just want to be on sound.' And somebody will say, 'I want to be on camera. And others say, 'I want to be the person to interview the people.' Or, 'I want to just be there and make sure the crowd is controlled.' They find their areas of interest, and they stick to that and try to work hard on that."

 

Why Girls

It’s become increasingly difficult to discuss the crises confronting females in developing nations as singular issues — poverty, AIDS, infant mortality, death from childbirth, early marriage — are not independent of one another, and therefore cannot be addressed as such. Some stats:

83 percent of sub-Saharan African girls are not enrolled in secondary school. When a girl in the developing world receives seven or more years of education, she marries four years later and has 2.2 fewer children. 42 percent of girls in sub-Saharan Africa are married before the age of 18. For every additional year that a girl attends secondary school, her income increases 15 to 25 percent. Adolescent girls are up to five times more likely to die from complications of pregnancy than women in their 20s, and their babies are also at a higher risk of dying. Women with post-primary education are five times more likely than illiterate women to know the basic facts about HIV/AIDS. Early childbearing is closely correlated with poverty. Girls from poor households are three times more likely than girls from wealthier families to give birth during adolescence, and they bear twice as many children. For every year of schooling that a mother receives, infant mortality declines by 5-10 percent. Poverty compels many young women to seek exploitative employment, with jobs that are characterized by minimal pay, long hours and unequal power relations. When women and girls earn income, they reinvest 90 percent of it into their families, in comparison to men, who reinvest only 30 to 40 percent of their income.

Clearly, educating girls would, at the very least, be a simple beginning toward eradicating larger social and economic ills. Penelope is living proof of it, but you’ll have to see the film to witness her story for yourself.

 

After the Film

The women who worked on the movie returned home to extremely impressed and proud husbands and children. And, the screenings, which were held in high school auditoriums and open fields in villages across the region, were received with appreciation and gratitude. So as the message of their short film continues to resonate, inspire and give hope to thousands, the filmmakers themselves are continuing on their own journeys; all of them have become literate, and are pursuing careers or continuing their education. Their men have even followed them into the classrooms for literacy.

This experience was not a one-off though. They are busy at work on their second film, addressing the issue of child brides and domestic violence. Abibata says that the once timid group approached the new project with nothing but confidence and certainty about the next issue they need to address.

Perhaps even more shocking and moving than the community's acceptance of such candid storytelling is the project's effectiveness. Penelope allowed the film to capture her actual experience of getting an AIDS test — and the results. Since showing I’ve Found My Way, the actual numbers of people getting tested has risen by 65 percent. This is remarkable not only because people's lives can be significantly extended and improved with ARVs, but also addresses the tragedy of orphans.

Cotton says, "When they lose their parents, their vulnerability is so acute — that if we can extend the lives of their parents, which is absolutely possible, then we can really transform family life. So that test is really important."

The brave and simple act of sharing one's story on a grassroots level has long-lasting and far-reaching implications. Education works. According to Ann Cotton, "There is a vaccination of education and opportunity where people can protect themselves and empower themselves against this disease." And, she believes that these women have brought a socioeconomic context to the global dialogue, and it's through this that we will have a deeper understanding of what is driving forward HIV/AIDS in the world today.

While I could never say whether or not that special HIV/AIDS awareness edition of the school paper made an impact on anyone, I realize that I too — an educated white gal from a middle-class suburb of New Jersey — also only ever received an educational vaccination. And that gives me hope.

 

Photos and production stills courtesy of Camfed and Where the Water Meets the Sky.