EUSKADIASIA

EuskadiAsia took the occasion to maintain an interview with the Secretary of Bangalore Film Society, Georgekutty Luckose, who was in Bilbao to present Voices from the Waters Film Festival (Bangalore, India) within the program of conferences of  the International Festival of Invisible Cinema which held in February 2010.

 

“Voices From the Waters”is the largest International Film Festival on Water, with more than 300 handpicked films that deal with the many dimensions of the water crisis- ecological destruction, livelihood and migration, discrimination distribution, sanitation, harvesting and so on. The festival has been much acclaimed and films from the festival have played at prestigious international film festival such as the Margaret Mead Film Festival, New York, Mountain film in Telluride and Finger Lakes Environmental Film Festival, Ithaca College, USA. It was a festival in design, but has become a movement in reality. The true success of ‘Voices From The Waters’ lies in its ability to reach out to the students, film makers, artists, water activists, architects, engineers, scholars and policy makers.

 

We would like to thank Mr. Georgekutti for giving us the opportunity of responding to our questions.

 

More Information: http://www.voicesfromthewaters.com/

 

 

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“Voices from the waters” festival has started with the purpose of protecting the rivers and water bodies from the multinational corporations. Second, we also want to save the agriculture from the pollutions. That was the basic objective. In this respect, we communicated all nations our public protests against the fact that they don’t take the initiative in order to protect water and also because the multinational corporations are damaging the rivers and, as a result, their ecological situation is very bad. In fact, they don’t help very much to dispose of these damages and to listen to the people, the peasants, for example, who have a lot of knowledge about sustainable agriculture. This happened in two thousand and four and, at that time I concluded that we need to look at water in a broadest sense. We are talking about not just about water, but about some problems related to the water. For instance, the absent of water, droughts, floods. Besides, there are important problems with polluted water and the water in health. There are some many health problems in Indian’s continent because of the salinity in water. In fact, a lot of people are consuming not really drinkable water. This impels us to establish some critical reflections on the manner in which we have to look at the world. In these moments, the world is being perceived as a commodity and people indeed forget that we need to talk about our relationship with the nature. Because we are part of the nature.

 

 

 

We need a deep transformation in the economical activity system and a reformulation of our conception about how can we live in a comfortable situation. In this sense, we have to be aware that the water is essential not only for human being but also for life world. Everything that living in the world requires water. And, of course, from this film festival we are looking at the water in the Indian context, bearing in mind that the water nurtures the soils and without water there is no life. We have to make efforts to preserve water because it means that we are doing something in favour of the preservation of the planet. Thus in the last three years we have tried to focus on water issues because there are many films on this issue that show a relationship with the water which is very different and intimate. Tragically, we have also problems which affects to water shortage, especially in India, but also in Latin-America and Africa. Because of development of the cities people have not drinking water. Still, the water is not a sufficient to sustain the cities’ requirement. Another thing about the water that I want to remark is that the water is not something created, the water is something that is there but you cannot create it as other product. So basically the festival’s purpose is to try to protect our waters because it is life itself.

Why did you create Voices from the Waters festival?
Because water is not singular, there are waters. There are different kinds of waters: there is the sea water, there is the river water, there is the spring water, there is the mist, there is the snow, there is the mountain spring. And the nature of these waters is different. This is something that is necessary to recognize: the water is not singular, on the contrary, there are many waters.

 

That is to say, there are also different cultural expressions related to the water around the world…
I am not talking about the water itself. The nature of water in each specific area is different. Water is a secret that flows in different environments, so it is correct to speak of waters and not of water in singular.

 

 

What is your conception of the water associated with the world natural process?
The water is very essential for life. If there is not water there is not planet. And although the people acknowledge that it is necessary to protect the water, what they are really doing is to destroy the environment in full. For example, in India already there is a water shortage problem. Across the country and in different provinces are fighting for the control of water and it seems that by 2020, according with many scientific texts, there won't be water. It demonstrates that there is tremendous humanity crisis. We could mention the droughts in many ancient cities because we are at risk of lacking of water to sustain life and to satisfy the every body's needs. Even now in some cities of India water is only edible twice a week and not every day not like here. I think that this is a very urgent issue. However, at the present we are seeing this problem from a more realistic prospect. The people are concerned for handing water, for this reason this festival is very important. Definitively, this festival is presented in the high schools, colleges, and in all the society of Bangalore with films on water issues from any place of the planet. So it is a great pleasure for this festival to receive films on water issues from many countries because it is everybody’s responsibility.

 

 

 

 

What is your relation with official institutions and what is the role of the Government in India in order to protect the situation of waters and rivers?
The government is doing nothing. In fact, the concerned citizens show more interest and more dispositions to do something in relation with water’s preservation, with water’s conservation. Above all, there are concerns about the state of potable water and they are taking steps on this respect. The government is still thinking more in terms of the water as available and distributing resource. Anyway, the government is recognizing now what a lot of people state: that the rainwater is not available for everyone. Therefore, every new building, houses, flats must save water, this is the most important government improvement but, on the contrary, there is a lot of citizen’s initiatives. People are really prepared to learn how to conserve water. In the countryside, for example, you can drink water after the first rain because the countryside and the atmosphere are not polluted. But in Indian streets the situation is different. You only can drink water after purifying. In the cities there are purification processes in order to obtaining drinking water because there is much pollution there. And another thing in “Voices from the water” which we have to do is to reorient the production in agriculture. Agriculture is completely modernized in the sense that you have to use a lot of fertilizers, pesticides and a lot of water. And it is very important for us to go back to the traditional agriculture. For two reasons. There is a food shortage across the world and this food is also controlled by the multinational companies. Now is necessary to make the citizens understand that the food is not produced for the markets but for human consumption. The market let companies produce, but what is very important is that ordinary citizens can produce the own food without fertilizers, without pesticides. The objective here is to get more healthy food. It is very important also for us to save the soil because fertilizers and pesticides actually destroy the soil. There is an urgent necessity to return towards traditional agriculture practices because it is very sustainable.

 

 

 

 

What has been the evolution of the festival in these years?

In the beginning, the average participation was about forty-fifty people for screening. In 2006 we could do nothing because I was very busy and in 2007 we have been able to reach 7000 or 8000 students in schools. The schools incite children to watch films. That is to say, we have got people who are interested on water issues. In the next years has been really a great step forward and in 2009 we had one main venue and five smaller venues in the city. There were six screens. And now different universities are approaching us to screen films in the colleges. For example, in the end of this month I will go to northeast of India because there is a project based on screening these films for other colleges. I have to add that our festival is structured in three days completely connected: in the first day we introduce the issue associated with general human rights, the second day is focused on water issues and different kind of waters. Finally, the third day we screen films on life level.

¿Por qué se crea el Festival de Voces desde las Aguas?
Porque el agua no es singular, hay muchas aguas. Existen diferentes tipos de aguas: está el agua de mar, el agua del río, el agua de manantial, la niebla, la nieve, el manantial de montaña. Y la naturaleza de estas aguas es diferente. Esto es algo que hay que reconocer: el agua no es singular, sino que hay muchas aguas.

Es decir, también hay diferentes expresiones culturales relacionadas con el agua alrededor del mundo...
No estoy hablando del agua propiamente agua. La naturaleza del agua en cada área específica es diferente. El agua es un secreto que fluye en diferentes ambientes, por lo que es correcto hablar de aguas y no de agua en singular.

¿Cuál es su concepción del agua asociada con el proceso natural a nivel mundial?
El agua es esencial para la vida. Si no hay agua no hay planeta. Y aunque la gente reconoce que es necesario proteger el agua, lo que realmente están haciendo es destruir el medio ambiente en su totalidad. Por ejemplo, en la India ya hay un problema de escasez de agua. En todo el país y en distintas provincias están luchando por el control del agua y parece que para el año 2020, de acuerdo con muchos textos científicos, no habrá agua. Parece que hay crisis tremenda que afecta a la humanidad. Podríamos citar  el tema de la sequía en muchas ciudades antiguas ya que estamos en riesgo de que no haya nada de agua para sostener la vida y para satisfacer las necesidades de todos. Incluso ahora, en algunas ciudades de la India el agua sólo es apta para el consumo dos veces por semana y no todos los días, no como aquí. Creo que este es un asunto muy urgente. Sin embargo, en la actualidad estamos viendo este problema desde una perspectiva más realista. La gente está preocupada por disponer de agua, por esta razón, este festival es muy importante. En definitiva, este festival se presenta en las escuelas secundarias, universidades, y en toda la sociedad de Bangalore, con películas sobre los problemas del agua desde cualquier lugar del planeta. Así que es un gran placer para este festival para recibir las películas sobre temas asociados al agua de muchos países porque es una responsabilidad de todos.

¿Cuál es su relación con las instituciones oficiales y cuál es el papel del Gobierno en la India en la protección de las aguas y los ríos?

El gobierno no está haciendo nada. De hecho, los ciudadanos afectados muestran más interés y más disposiciones para hacer algo en relación con la preservación del agua, con la conservación del agua. Por encima de todo, existe una preocupación sobre el estado del agua potable y están tomando medidas en este sentido. El gobierno sigue pensando más en términos de agua disponible y de distribución de los recursos. De todos modos, el gobierno está reconociendo ahora lo que mucha gente afirma: que el agua de lluvia no está disponible para a todos. Por lo tanto, todos los edificios nuevos, pisos, chalets deben ahorrar agua, esta es la mejora más importante del gobierno, pero, por el contrario, hay muchas iniciativas de los ciudadanos. La gente está realmente  dispuesta a aprender a conservar el agua. En el campo, por ejemplo, se puede beber agua después de la primera lluvia, porque el paisaje y la atmósfera no están contaminados. Sin embargo, en las calles de la India la situación es diferente. Sólo se puede beber agua después de una purificación. En las ciudades existen procesos de purificación para obtener agua potable porque hay mucha contaminación allí. Y otra cosa que en "Voces del agua" tenemos que hacer es reorientar la producción en la agricultura. La agricultura esta completamente modernizada en el sentido de que tiene que utilizar una gran cantidad de fertilizantes, pesticidas y un montón de agua. Y es muy importante para nosotros volver a la agricultura tradicional. Por dos razones. Hay una escasez de alimentos en todo el mundo y este alimento también está controlado por las empresas multinacionales. Ahora es necesario hacer que los ciudadanos entiendan que los alimentos no se producen para los mercados, sino para el consumo humano. El mercado hace que las empresas produzcan, por lo que es muy importante que los ciudadanos comunes puedan producir el propio alimento sin fertilizantes y sin pesticidas. El propósito aquí es conseguir alimentos más saludables. Es muy importante también para nosotros salvar los suelos, porque los fertilizantes y plaguicidas en realidad destruyen la tierra. Hay una necesidad urgente de volver a las prácticas de agricultura tradicional, porque es muy sostenible.

 

¿Cuál ha sido la evolución del festival en estos años?

En un principio, la participación media fue de unos cuarenta o cincuenta personas para proyectar. En 2006 no podíamos hacer nada porque estaba muy ocupado y en 2007 hemos sido capaces de llegar a 7000 o 8000 estudiantes en las escuelas. Las escuelas incitan a los niños a ver películas. Es decir, tenemos personas que están interesadas en temas de agua. En los próximos años realmente ha habido un gran paso adelante y en 2009 tuvimos una sede principal y cinco pequeños espacios urbanos. Tuvimos seis pantallas. Y ahora diferentes universidades se están acercando a nosotros para proyectar películas en la universidad. Por ejemplo, al final de este mes voy a ir a al noreste de la India porque hay un proyecto basado en la proyección de estos filmes para otras universidades. Tengo que añadir que nuestro festival se estructura en tres días completamente conectados: en el primer día se introduce el problema relacionado con los derechos humanos en general, el segundo día se centra en las cuestiones del agua y diferentes tipos de aguas y, finalmente, el tercer día películas hay proyecciones a nivel de la vida.

What is the reception of the people when they go to see the films?
It is fantastic. I don’t sacrifice the esthetic prospect in favour of a social approach. I think that the esthetic dimension is also important. The beauty of what we see has to be reflected in our productions. That’s essential. People have to be linked with beauty.  With the film's entertainment the inner transformation comes. In the festival has like an activist level, then a screening for school people on water issues and then a dialogue with film’s directors after the screening.

 

What is the situation of this kind of films in India?

All of this is a citizen’s initiative. Government doesn’t promote this kind of films. Social Film festival is something like a local cinema academy which is presented in twenty two provinces of Karnataka, two days for the screening for the public and two days for the screening for the colleges. This means that it has been a fantastic participation. It is getting recognition across the world. We have screened films from Africa, from Iraq, from Palestine, some films are from Latin-America, from Chiapas, from the United States and we have also screened Sweden films and from Switzerland. Switzerland has protected the water very well. We have films for over twenty countries and I’m sure that many of these films will be showed here, in Europe.

¿Cuál es la recepción de la gente cuando van a ver las películas?
Es fantástico. Yo no sacrifico la perspectiva estética en favor de un enfoque social. Creo que la dimensión estética es también importante. La belleza de lo que vemos tiene que estar reflejado en nuestras producciones. Eso es esencial. La gente tiene que estar vinculada con la belleza. Con el entretenimiento de la película viene la transformación interna. En el festival tiene como un nivel de activistas, a continuación, una proyección para la gente del colegio de temas de agua y luego un diálogo con los directores de cine, después de la proyección.

¿Cuál es la situación de este tipo de películas en la India?

Todo esto es una iniciativa ciudadana. El gobierno no promueve este tipo de películas. El festival de cine social es algo así como una academia de cine local que se presenta en veintidós provincias de Karnataka, dos días para la proyección para el público y dos días para la detección de los colegios. Esto significa que ha habido una participación fantástica. Se trata de conseguir el reconocimiento de todo el mundo. Hemos proyectado películas de África, de Iraq, de Palestina, algunas películas son de América Latina, de Chiapas, de los Estados Unidos y también, hemos proyectado películas de Suecia y de Suiza. Suiza ha protegido el agua muy bien. Tenemos películas de más de veinte países y estoy seguro de que muchas de estas películas se proyectarán aquí en Europa.

The festival consider itself as movement, why?
It is a movement because the increasing participation of the people and the increasing average of people who want to screen the films. We call this film festival a movement simply because of the growing number of groups and institutions who are interested to organize this festival in their area involving the local activists and leaders. Karnataka Chalanachitra Academy is planning to take this festival to all the major cities and towns of Karnataka. There is already a plan to organize this festival across all major cities in India.  Financial constraint is the only reason it is getting delayed. Many film societies in South India have already organized this festival with many more being planned. In fact we want to create a movement because we want to screen films to make high school students, college students and general public aware of the necessity of protecting every waters and stopping pollution. Protecting the water is protecting our life.

 

 

What is the influence of the festival in other parts of India?
Everybody recognize the importance of this international festival. I mean that everybody knows that there is a meaningful festival that is happening through the Bangalore society. “Voices from the waters” has a public recognition, the people see films, and delegates come from other parts of the country. It is a movement that focuses on the contents and films, the screenings are continuous, the interactions are continuous. Now what we need is time and enough strength to convince the government to take seriously the protection of water.

 

 

The last question, what is your main objective in a short future in relation with the festival?

In a future, I want to make truly international traveling film festival, we will do it. Meanwhile, the immediate objective is to bring many more partners. In the beginning, “Voices from the waters” was organized by Bangalore film society but we want that in 2010 “Voices from the waters” is organized by many more people. We want to convert “Voices from the waters” into an international platform.