11.00 a.m.
Film: Flood of Memory (Baad Ki Raat)
Country: India
Director: Anitha Balachandran
Duration: 11 min.
Synopsis: In 2006, a devastating flood hits the Rajasthan desert of western India. The film uses a combination of live footage, charcoal and sand animations to evoke the desert landscape, and the memories of people who live within it.

11.15 a.m.
Film: Source to Sea: The Columbian River Swim
Country: USA/Canada
Director: Andy Morris
Duration: 90 min.
Synopsis: Chris Swan swam 1243miles in 13months, all across the Columbia River, braving not just cold and exhaustion but pollution and encroachments which threaten to turn the once thriving and glorious water body into sewage, displacement and extinction. Andy Morris’s remarkable ‘Source to Sea’ is not just a rousing paean to human endeavor but also spans the ancient story of a river and the life and culture that thrives in and around it. It is through these epic narratives that the film arrives on the essential connect between man and the elements; one we are in the danger of forgetting. Winner of the Best Environmental activism/ Social Justice Award and Most Inspiring Adventure Film Award.

LUNCH BREAK
Time : 1.15 pm – 2.00 pm

02.00 p.m.
Film: Toxic Waste in Papago Territory
Country: Mexico
Director/Producer: Promedios
Duration: 18 min.
Synopsis: In a Papago Indigenous community located in Quitovac, near the boarder with Arizona the community discusses their fight against the construction of a toxic waste dump that will be a repository of waste from both the US and Mexico. Elders speak about the extinction of certain trees, birds, how toxins will become air-borne and the serious health consequences for all.

02.20 p.m.
Film: Switch-Off (Apaga y Vanamos)
Country: Pehuenche-Mapuche/Chile/Spain
Director: Manel Mayol
Duration: 83 min.
Synopsis: The Biobio is an angry river, one that has resisted every attempt to tame its furious currents- from the Incas to the Spanish Armada. But with an energy giant and an uncaring government trying to construct a hydro-electric dam over its waters, the lands and histories of the indigenous Pehuenche-Mapuche tribes are a stake. However evasive and sly the officials try to be, the voice of protest booms across the land. Director Mayol captures these angry voices and images to channel them into the explosive and acclaimed ‘Switch-Off’. Winner of Best Film at both, the prestigious Planet in Focus and Ecocinema 2005.

TEA BREAK
Time : 3.45 pm – 4.00 pm

04.00 p.m.
Film: Sujan Bandhu, a boatman’s journey
Country: India
Director: Viplab Majumder
Duration: 19 min.
Synopsis: The river, like life, inspires us to keep moving and that is the story of this protagonist of ‘Sujan Bandhu’. More than the documentation of his life, the director feels it is the documentation of life itself.

04.20 p.m.
Film: Umiaq Skin Boat
Country: Canada
Director: Jobie Weetaluktuk
Duration: 31 min.
Synopsis: Umiaq Skin Boat is a beautiful and poetic film about a group of Inuit elders in Inukjuak, Quebec who decide one summer to build the first traditional seal skin boat their community has seen in over 50 years. Umiaq Skin Boat bears witness to the resilience of the Inuit spirit in rapidly changing times.

04.50 p.m.
Film: Sharing Paradise
Country: USA/Indonesia
Director: Amelia Hapsari
Duration: 58 min.
Synopsis: The fishing community of the rustic Indonesian Island of Balobaloang is facing a crisis like they have never faced before, a thoroughly modern one. For a community that stills bides by traditional practices, their waters have increasingly come under siege by fishermen from neighboring islands, who even after depleting their own island’s fish reserves, continue to engage in dynamite bombing and cyanide fishing. Director Amelia Hapsari gathers the Balobaloang community around her and together their voices shape the narrative and the story of ‘Sharing Paradise’.

SHORT BREAK
Time : 5.50 pm – 6.00 pm

6.00 p.m. - INVOCATION FILM
Film: Secret Life
Country: Poland
Director: Joanna Hoffmann
Duration: 12 min
Synopsis: The video refers to the contemporary quest for life and its definition. In a poetic way, it combines micro and macro scales, scientific images with everyday surrounding and experiences. It touches the subject of water as a source of life.

INAUGRATION of 'VOICES FROM THE WATERS 2009'
Time : 6.00 pm – 6.30 pm

6.30 p.m. - INAUGURAL FILM
Film: Barren Dreams
Country: Bangladesh
Director: Anwar Chowdhury
Duration: 28 min.
Synopsis: In the midst of the Jamuna, lie the conjoined islands of Patilbari-Dighalkandi, formed as a result of erosion. ‘Barren Dreams’ evocatively and with a quiet dignity captures the lives of the children on these islands as they go about their daily routines. In the midst of hardship, the film locates a certain hope in these young hearts and in that perhaps, lies a better future for us all.

11.00 a.m.
Film: Blue Gold in the Garden of Eden
Country: Turkey/Syria/Iraq/Germany
Director: Leslie Franks
Duration: 59 min.
Synopsis: It was called the Garden of Eden. The cradle of western and Islamic civilization nourished by two ancient and legendary rivers- the Tigris and the Euphrates. These were the lands that gave the world the first principles of water management, showed how mighty rivers could be harnessed for greater good. But times have changed. Director Franke’s striking documentary delves into the social and economic consequences of the South-East-Anatolia Project and prophecies that reason for the next war in these strife-torn regions will be nothing but ‘water’.

12.00 p.m.
Film: Staging Cities
Country: Argentina
Director: Mauricio Corbalan and Pio Torroja
Duration: 14 min.
Synopsis: The question arises - how does one represent urban waste? Does it bear representation? And if so, then to what end? A furious debate on the state of the urban ecosystem and a search to overcome our own apathies.

12.15 p.m.
Film: Salt of the Earth
Country: France/Thailand
Director: Bernard Sugue
Duration: 51 min.
Synopsis: Food supply of millions people of the Isaan region in Thailand is endangered because of the salinity of the earth. The scientists installed a veritable field laboratory in the middle of the rice field but to no avail. With no breakthrough in sight, they turn to the farmers and their intimate knowledge of the land and together, the search for a solution is begun.

LUNCH BREAK
Time : 1.15 pm – 2.00 pm

02.00 p.m.
Film: Beyond the Tsunami
Country: Myanmar
Director: Shin Daewe
Duration: 21 min.
Synopsis: In the aftermath of a tsunami, a fisherman and family try to come to terms with the experience of the catastrophe that changed their lives forever.

02.20 p.m.
Film: Cucapas & Kiliwas 9000 Years Later
Country: Mexico
Director: Nicolas Defosse
Duration: 58 min.
Synopsis: The haunting tragedy of two tribes, the Cucapas and Kiliwas, in Northwestern Mexico, both prohibited from plying their traditional livelihoods in their own ancient territories and are now being pushed to the brink of extinction. As the members of the tribe are forced to emigrate in search of work, their culture and language gradually dissolve into oblivion.

03.20 p.m.
Film: The Earth Beneath His Feet
Country: India
Director: Saji P. Mathew
(The Director and Cast of the film will be present for the screening)
Duration: 16 min.
Synopsis: Late in life, a scientist is tormented by the fact that all his life’s work has been one great folly and instead of progress, he has instead pushing civilization closer to extinction. Will it be too late to redeem himself?

TEA BREAK
Time : 3.45 pm – 4.00 pm

04.00 p.m.
Film: Walk with Water (Nira Nadige)
Country: India
Director: K. Murali Mohan Kati & Manjunath H.
(The Directors of the film will be present for the screening)
Duration: 18 min.
Synopsis: A sobering look at the city of Bangalore in the throes of the water crisis.

04.30 p.m.
Film: Duet with the River God
Country: India
Director: Altaf Mazid
(The Director of the film will be present for the screening)
Duration: 90 min.
Synopsis: For Suren Boro and 6, 50, 000 people, living in 126 villages in the southern side of the River Pagladia, the river is a living god called 'Pagla Baba'. Round the year they remain engaged in pushing the river down south, for every use of water – drinking, household, irrigation. Since the 1920s, they have constructed 13 bunds with whatever materials at the disposal – boulder, stone, sand, tree etc. ‘Duet with the River God’ chronicles a brief period in Suren’s life and through it, finds an almost mystical connection between man and river.

SHORT BREAK
Time : 6.00 pm – 6.10 pm

06.10 p.m.
Film: Deeply Superficial
Country: India
Director: Veneet Raj Bagga
Duration: 26 min.
Synopsis: ‘Deeply Superficial’ is the chronicle of many meanings the waters of the river Ganga holds for the people of this diverse country. Mired in these meanings is a strange irony- where the river is venerated as holy and pure, the condition of its water and surroundings is tragic and full of filth. The film seeks out the people working to save the river and implores that each one of us can contribute our bit to retain and preserve the essence of our rivers for generations to come.

06.40 p.m.
Film: Blue Gold: World Water Wars
Country: USA
Director: Sam Bozzo
Duration: 90 min
Synopsis: ‘Blue Gold: World Water Wars’ has been one of the most important documents of the water crisis in the past year. Screened and feted across the globe, ‘Blue Gold’ chronicles not only the deceit within the power corridors that steals an essential and ever-depleting natural resource from the people, commodifies it and attempts to sell it back to us at a price but also documents the various movements at different levels from grassroot to global that have come together in an attempt to conserve and protect water and our right to it. Produced by the makers of the acclaimed and popular documentary ‘The Corporation’ and narrated with verve by none-other-than Malcom McDowell, ‘Blue Gold’ was awarded Best Film at the prestigious Vancouver International Film Festival.

11.00 a.m.
Film: Trade Winds
Country: USA
Director: Elyssa Di Giovanni
Duration: 05 min.
Synopsis: A leisure-minded lighthouse keeper puts his kite building hobby to good use when a violent storm at sea threatens his life.

11.05 a.m.
Film: Ice Bears of the Beaufort
Country: USA
Director: Arthur Smith
Duration: 55 min.
Synopsis: Arthur Smith’s dreamlike ‘Ice Bears of the Beaufort’ plays witness to fragility and the otherworldly beauty of Alaska’s Beaufort sea coast, home to the polar bear. As the offshore oil and gas development threatens to wreck havoc in paradise and the government debates as to whether or not to declare and protect the area as a ‘critical habitat’, a lone resident of an Inupiat Eskimo Village captures the sounds and images that offers the sole documented proof of a mesmerizing world dangerously poised on the brink of extinction. Winner of the Special Jury Prize at the Blue Ocean Film festival, Georgia.

12.00 p.m.
Film: Holy Water
Country: Sweden/India
Director: Lotta Ekelunnd
Duration: 23 min.
Synopsis: As the cola companies deplete and pollute the essential ground water of the communities, strong feminine voices rise in protest. And while they are successful in shutting down a cola plant, the film debates the larger and ever-more-pertinent question of our age- Whose water? And to whom does it rightfully belong?

12.25 p.m.
Film: Damaged
Country: India
Director: Subrat Kumar Sahu
Duration: 73 min.
Synopsis: A scathing indictment of the atrocities committed on the tribal and farmer communities in the Indravati River Basin in the lush Eastern Ghats of Orissa who are being forced to forsake their lives and livelihoods, all for the sake of the current vogue for ‘development’. The film documents the tale of a beautiful land coming apart at the seams and losing its very essence and culture, all for the construction of a concrete façade and for a few stones that lie underneath.

LUNCH BREAK
Time : 1.40 pm – 2.00 pm

02.00 p.m.
Film: Heather and Goliath
Country: USA
Director: Thea Mercouffer
Duration: 10 min.
Synopsis: A rousing account of a biologist with the Army Corps of Engineers, a satirist and a bunch of boaters stand up to the authorities, and change the course of history for the embattled LA river.

02.10 p.m.
Film: Waterworks
Country: Bangladesh
Director: Anwar Chowdhury
Duration: 22 min.
Synopsis: Artist Farida Zaman describes the influence of her childhood memories of boats, fishing nets, fishes, fishermen on her life and paintings. Her country’s rivers, the life around them and her nostalgia for peace and quiet of the rural countryside inevitably find their way into her work.

02.30 p.m.
Film: The Damned of the Sea
Country: Morocco/France/Belgium
Director: Jawad Rhalib
Duration: 70 min.
Synopsis: Thousands of small Moroccan fishermen from Essaouira, the first ever sardine port in the world have to move further down south to Dakhla in the Sahara to hope to catch some fish. In the background, trawlers from foreign countries drag the waters with their death nets, killing an entire ecosystem. In the foreground, captivating portraits of desperate fishermen who've been robbed of their livelihood. It is a hellish struggle. ‘The Damned of the Sea’ is a much acclaimed portrayal of loss and displacement in the modern world, garnering awards at Envirofilm 2009, Monte Carlo and Nyon.

TEA BREAK
Time : 3.45 pm – 4.00 pm

04.00 p.m.
Film: Tiburon Island, Our Heart
Country: Mexico
Director/Producer: Promedios
Duration: 21 min.
Synopsis: Throughout their long history, the Comca'ac have survived numerous extermination attempts. Now the Mexican state wants to turn their land into business. On October 22th, 2006, remembering their dead and their political prisoners, the Comca'ac come together to save their people and their collective heart: Tiburón island.

04.20 p.m.
Film: Ten Canoes
Country: Australia
Director: Rolf de Heer and Peter Djirr
Duration: 90 min.
Synopsis: It is a land where that which comes before and all that has yet to be exists in the present, in beautiful unity. The first full-length feature ever to be made in the indigenous Australian language, the acclaimed and truly one-of-a-kind ‘Ten Canoes’ unspools story within story, time within time and spins a strange, whimsical and beautiful narrative about the land and its legends, spirits and strangers, husbands, wives, friends and neighbors. Winner of the Special Jury Prize at Cannes’ 2006.

SHORT BREAK
Time : 5.50 pm – 6.00 pm

06.00 p.m. - INVOCATION FILM for Closing Ceremony
Film: Cairo: the breaking up of ice
Country: USA/UK
Director: Jacob Cartwright & Nick Jordan
Duration: 16 min.
Synopsis: 19th century adventurer John James Audubon’s graphic tale of being stranded among breaking ice is juxtaposed with images of changing landscapes and ghost towns, thus combining the past and the present into an intense meditation on the changing times.

CLOSING CEREMONY for 'VOICES FROM THE WATERS 2009'
Time : 6.30 pm

06.35 p.m.
Film: Titas Ekti Naadir Naam
Country: India/Bangladesh
Director: Ritwik Ghatak
Duration: 159 min.
Synopsis: A milestone in cinema, one of the most searing and soulful chronicles of the human condition, Ghatak’s epic tragedy ‘Titas Ekti Naadir Naam’ chronicles the river Titas in the throes of a drought spell and the doom it spells for the fishing community who have built their lives and worlds along its banks.

11.00 a.m. to 4.30 p.m. - SEMINAR / CONFERENCE

Critical link between Climate Changes and
Food, Water, Livelihood and Ecosystem Security

: A dialogue for effective change