June /202122 Four stories for one water The fifth edition of the We Art Water Film Festival announced its four winners coinciding with World Water Day The fifth edition of the We Art Water Film Festival ries with 69 projects. We mustn’t forget there are still This is the great value brought to the world by each presented its awards on the 22nd March, World Water over 2 billion people without access to water and edition of the We Art Water Film Festival as the four Day, in a ceremony that, due to the Covid19 pan more than 4 billion without safe sanitation. The slogan winners, chosen from a cast of 45 finalists, show. demic, was held in a hybrid format, inperson and of World Water Day is “What does water mean to In the microanimation category, the winner wasMaij online, from the iconic Roca Barcelona Gallery. you?” This is the right question to begin this gala. We by the Spaniard César Díaz Meléndez. The author The gala, which was presented by Carlos Garriga, will find many answers in the Festival’s short films.” uses the technique of sand on glass as a powerful director of the We Are Water Foundation and Xavier Xavier Torras, who was the director of the Foundation and suggestive tool to convey the dire consequences Torras, Roca’s Brand Communication director, was until one year ago, highlighted the work carried out of polluted water for our life on the planet, how it af hosted by journalist and TV presenter Elena Sánchez, by the Festival: “Since its first edition in 2011, which fects people and the environment. who pointed out the significance of the day chosen started with 600 participants, until today, with over In the microfiction category, Locker, by Selvaraj R for the awards ceremony: “This ceremony should 3,300, we have seen the festival grow with every edi shows in a series of deep shots a brilliant metaphor always take place on World Water Day. Is there any tion. Perhaps the increased visibility of climate about the value of water, which acquires a special better day to do it?” change and the water problems has made participa relevance in arid India. As always, it was much more than an event, it was tion reach all the countries of the world." an act of friendship and togetherness in raising In the microdocumentary category , Qudrat, from Indeed, the Festival is a privileged window to the Uzbekistan, was the winner adding a new human awareness of the value of water and the fight against world of water and sanitation that is constantly ex approach showing through Life Without Guarantee, the threat of its deterioration. panding, thereby consolidating cinematographic the profound cultural gap caused by the disappear The short films confirm, once again, the value of quality levels that transform all submitted short films ance of water and its replacement by a sand desert. cinema as a tool to convey and share knowledge and into one of the best tools to convey the value of water. emotions, two essential elements to make progress Elena, who was also a member of the jury, pointed Finally, the audience Award went to Lágrimas de la in the enormous planetary challenge: we have one out that in this fifth edition, the Festival has broken all Tierra (Tears of the Earth) by David Ballesteros. The water but very different ways of having access and participation and quality records: “3,362 registered short film recalls the figure of Tenampi, a farmer relating to it. authors from 131 countries. It is an impressive number whose father died due to water pollution, the disaster that thrills us.” of the Sonora and Bacanuchi rivers, which suffered Carlos Garriga highlighted the significance of the Fest the spill of 40,000 cubic metres of copper sulphate ival, which started 10 years ago, practically at the It is possible to tell revealing and moving stories in 2014, in what has been defined as the worst environ same time as the work of the Foundation: “In these den ouncing about our complicated and conflicting mental disaster caused by mining in the country. ten years we have enjoyed, shared, cried, laughed relationship with water in only three minutes. The There are as many ways to relate to water as there and been moved by very different stories from all messages of the authors convey a message of opti are people on Earth, but filmmaking is a universal around the world. 10 years in which we have been mism to move forward in an uncertain future, by gen language that encompasses them all. able to bring water and sanitation to the most disad erating confidence in our capacity to restore and take vantaged areas of the planet. So far, we have changed care of the most necessary good for the sustainabil the lives of more than 1.8 million people in 23 count ity of the planet. The ceremony was held in a hybrid format, in-person and online, at the Roca Barcelona Gallery 19