The eagerly awaited screening of Nocem Collado’s critically acclaimed documentary, Women and Water (La Mujer y El Agua) will take place in the Faculty of Humanities on the 5th March 2015. The event forms part of a range of activities being held in the lead up to International Women’s Day, celebrated on the 8th of March every year.

In many parts of the world, it is women, not men, who are left with the task of ensuring their families and communities have a steady supply of water. Burdened with the task of looking after the health of these families and communities, most are forced to abandon school at a very young age. Meanwhile, these women are also the first to suffer when water supplies become scarce.

Drawing parallels between the life cycle, on the one hand, and the water cycle on the other, Collado’s work scrutinizes the relationship between women and water in urban and rural societies in India. At the same time, the work raises issues about an increasingly scarce natural resource, posing a crucial question, namely; ‘Who has the right to water?’ Indeed, the production of the documentary coincided with the UN’s designation of 2013 as International Year of Water Cooperation.

Debate

The director, Nocem Collado, has carved out a distinguished career as a documentary maker, attaining critical acclaim for her 2011 documentary Cartography of Loneliness, which deals with the complex realities faced by widows living in India, Nepal and Afghanistan. Her work exposes the scale of gender inequality in diverse communities, while standing as a testament to the vindication of women's rights across the globe.

Collado, who is from Granada, explains; “From a very young age, my passion for images, travelling and anthropology compelled me to pursue a professional career as a documentary director and producer, photographer, and magazine columnist. I write about the status of women in the countries I visit. I’ve travelled extensively throughout Asia and the Middle East, and from those trips I was able to put together photography exhibitions such as Mujeres en la Ruta de la Seda, Miradas de Islam, and Yemen, la Arabia Feliz.”

Nocem Collado will be interviewed prior to the screening, further helping to contextualize the socio-political implications of her pioneering work, and shedding light on the technicalities of shooting and producing a documentary of this caliber. You will also have the opportunity to participate in a debate with the director after the screening.

Date: 5th March

Time: 12:00

Location: Aula Magna, Faculty of Humanities, UGR (Facultad de Filosofía y Letras)

Organised by: Faculty of Humanities (UGR)

Presenter: Ester Massó Guijaro (Social Anthropology Department UGR)

Contact: ester@ugr.es

Director: Nocem Collado

Contact: nocemcollado@gmail.com

Further information about the documentary: http://www.lamujeryelagua.com/en/__