New Platforms, New Dialogues

European Documentary Network (EDN)

PROPOSAL
SHARE THE DROP?
------DRAFT----

An interactive water webdoc

aimed at social, environmental and political change.

SYNOPSIS
On the northern tip of the Dead Sea is an abandoned Jordanian hotel. Its restaurant
once stood on the shores of the Dead Sea. Today the water is more than a kilometer
away. The Dead Sea is drying up. Receding more than a meter each year. It is the
result of Israels, Syrias and Jordans uncontrolled pumping from the River Jordan.
The Jordan is the Middle Easts most disputed river. A source of major conflict and
violence. Users of the Jordan river basin from Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Syria and
Lebanon tell their personal stories how it is like to live with water shortage in their
daily life. In this webdoc 5 water users express their views on how to share the drop
and whether there is a way out of the water and war crisis ?
TREATMENT
The aim of this interactive webdoc is to create a human dialogue between users of
the Jordan River. The River Jordan is the source of many disputes and outright
conflict between the countries that share the river: Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Palestine
and Israel. These countries are called riparians. The result of the the
overexploitation of water by the riparians is an unprecented environmental
degradation of the river and the lakes it fills like the Dead Sea. The end result will be
a lose-lose situation. To some water experts cooperation between countries is the
only way forward in the region. For them, it is a prerequisite for peace in the Middle
East. But how to foster and facilitate this change of heart ?
Upon entering the first interface of the webdoc, the viewer sees the outline of a map
of the river Jordan and its five surrounding countries. Each country is filled with the
profile photo of a water user in the river Jordan. The eyes of the user look directly in
the lens. Upon mouse clicking on the country, the webdoc user can play the story of
the user. This is a portrait of a water user living in one of the 5 respective riparian
countries. This can be a Syrian farmer, a Lebanese villager, an Israeli rower, a
Palestinian water expert or a Jordanian construction worker. The portraits show the
diversity of the users but also the common problem they all face: water shortage.
(note: no I am not sure about this because it does not link with Yousefs story so
maybe we should keep this with the peopleYousef want to have at the roundtable
butthat might not happen and these are more real people that the experts Yousef
wants to invite. We need to discuss because this is a new turn in my idea)
Next to the five portraits displayed in the map outline, the viewer can navigate to
another interface and play the on-going feature doc called Yousef on a Quest. Our
protagonist of the feature is Yousef Awayes from the Palestinian Water Authority
(PWA) in Ramallah. Yousef is a middle-aged water expert, who has spent part of his
life in Damascus as a member of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine
(DFLP). He also spent a long time in Cuba, when he was convinced communism was
the way forward. Now he is the international coordinator of the PWA and lives in
Ramallah with his wife and children. Ask Yousef what the challenges of water
resources in Palestine are and he will go into great details how the Israeli government
prevents the Palestinians to make full use of their water resources. Palestinian
farmers are forbidden to dig deep-wells and they are facing increasing water
shortages. 70% of all the resources are controlled by Israel. They are trying their best
but he says as long as Israel considers the Palestinians still as a consumer and a
burden to their own Water Plan, there is no solution to the water crisis. They are in
this together and should work as partners to solve this. They should share the drop

equally.....otherwise they will both lose in the end. This webdoc feature follows Yousef
in his quest to organise a roundtable in Amman. He wants to organise this with water
experts from the five riparians countries to come up with the solution to share the
drop. He regularly goes to international water fora where he discusses the water
problems with experts from all these five countriesYousef is convinced that he will
succeed in getting five water experts together but will he manage and restore trust in
the aftermath of the Gaza war? Or are the political barriers too strong ? The feature
doc is a non-going, viewer interactive documentary. This means, sequences are being
put on-line whilst the film is still in production. We do not know if Yousef will succeed
and through the sequence updates, viewers can gives suggestions to Yousef what his
next steps should be. Viewers can give him suggestions, ask him questions or give
him tips. The viewers are actively engaged in trying to help yousef in his quest to get
all five expert around the table in Amman.
Format(s), length & production plan
HDV
24 minutes
Strategy for cross media implementation
Interactive Webdoc
Messages to Yousef
FB page
Twitter account
Part of FROM THE SOURCE MULTI MEDIA PLATFORM
Budget sum & financing plan
PART 1
30.000 ??? Waterportraits of 5 users
PART 2
50.000 ??? - Feature webdoc
Total 80.000
Financing:
European Documentary Network development/production funding water portraits in Lebanon, Syria,
Jordan, Palestine and Israel
Anna Lindh Foundation - restore trust and rebuild bridges proposal match funding for feature webdoc
Yousef on a Quest
FROM THE SOURCE initiative - crowdfunding methods, cooperation with akvo.org to develop the
ongoing feature webdoc Yousef on a Quest
CV and contact details of the production team.
Joshka Wessels:
Sapiens Productions
Observantenweg 25
6212 EN Maastricht
e: Joshka@sapiensproductions.com
t:+31(0)6-21605609
Saed Abu Hmud:
Dana Khalil Trometer (Post-production):
Tarmak Films