Last night at Cinemaspace of the Segal Centre for the Performing Arts, Dave Eberts presented his latest film Where the Water Meets the Sky, a compelling account of empowering African women through film. Presented by Camfed, the film uses film to empower a group of rural women from Samfya who by gaining skills at filmmaking develop the courage to speak out on issues that affect their lives, from Aids and prostitution to exclusion from school because of reasons as perverse as lacking the money to buy a pen or a notebook. Eberts’ film details how the Samfya women filmmakers choose a teenage girl because she best represents their experiences of poverty and exclusion. So we are told the story of Penelop, a Zambian teenage girl who is orphaned by the ravages of AIDS, stripped of all her parents’ belongings and dismally forced into prostitution.

It was nice to see friends and family, including producer Jake Eberts, stick around at the end for an informal Q&A. Dave admitted there were challenges in directing women who had never seen a white man before. Narrated by Morgan Freeman, the film was commissioned by Camfed and its 60 minute running time is tricky in that it walks the fine line between traditional documentary and soft propaganda but “the good kind,” says Dave. The running time and the somewhat open ending were intentional to compel viewers to take action. The film is in the festival circuit and while many broadcasters, including PBS, are considering Where the Water Meets the Sky, Dave is looking at untraditional forms to get the film seen. Using the website as a hub, Camfed is strongly urging people to host home screenings with discussions to get word of mouth buzz behind Camfed’s effort to fight poverty and AIDS by educating African girls and investing in their economic independence.