SHARE THE DROP A crossmedia project Themes: Jordan River, Climate change, Water, Environment, Eco-peace in the Middle

East Director: Joshka Wessels Co-director: Saed Abu Hmud Address: Sapiensproductions, Observantenweg 25, 6212 EN, Maastricht, Netherlands Telecom: +31(0)43-3101919, mob +31(0)6-21605609 email Joshka@sapiensproductions.com WHY ? If the water dries up, people will leave. People in the Middle East are on the move, escaping the droughts. Some 300000 people in Syria already left their villages. Syrias Barada river is a ghost from what it was in the past. The former oasis of Damascus is completely dried up. Water is integral part of more than 60 years of bloody conflict between Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. These five countries share one river basin: The Jordan River Basin. They all want to control this water. The once famous River Jordan is reduced to a trickle. People on the ground feel the consequences in their daily lives. Climate change worsens the situation. It will only get hotter and drier and a major humanitarian water crisis is now unfolding. All people in the five countries experience daily water shortages. The Dead Sea is dead. The Sea of Galilee is completely depleted. Both Israel and Syria have issued at least five drought appeals over the last years. The Jordanians even lack drinking water at a national scale. The Palestinians use less than 15 litres per day and Israelis prevent them from using their own water. Israels national water carrier has depleted the Sea of Galilee. The Lebanese struggle with water distribution at local level. If it continues this way, more than 10 million people are at risk of losing their livelihoods region wide. Time is running out. If nothing is done, people in the Middle East will die of thirst. A new Oxford study found that on average, global temperatures will jump by four degrees Celsius by 2060. Areas that border deserts can expect to become as much as seven degrees warmer. Is this a lose-lose situation? Is this a recipe for drought, water wars and millions of environmental refugees? Or can the tide be turned? THE PROJECT Share the Drop is a crossmedia project consisting of 1) a documentary movie 2) an interactive website and 3) a social media campaign, telling the human story of the water and climate crisis in the Middle East. A group of passionate environmentalists from all Jordan river sharing countries is convinced water should now more than ever be a means for cooperation not war. The movie follows them on their journey and helps them to tell the human story of the Middle East water crisis. Each person living in the Jordan River Basin (Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Palestine and Israel) has a story to tell about water. Share the Drop integrates these human stories together in a map on an interactive website. The project enables water users in each of these countries to film their environment, post their stories on the website and interact/connect to eachother using the borderless internet. The project serves as a vehicle to foster an (international) intercultural dialogue on a commonly shared water problem. It aims to contribute to an environment of understanding between the different communities in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Palestine and Israel. The overall objective is to create a greater environmental awareness of the implications of climate change and water shortage. Linked to Share the Drop is a social campaign that utlimately aims to generate support for water projects in the Jordan River Basin. This campaign will use social media such as twitter and facebook but also develop community theatre plays on the ground about the water crisis for communities who do not have access to internet directly. THE INTERACTIVE EXPERIENCE ON THE WEB 3 main components: Interactive website featuring a map of the Jordan River Basin integrated with human stories Share the Drop, the 52-minute movie Campaign to support water and sanitation projects using social media (internet) and community theatre (on the ground) Upon entering the Share the Drop website, the user will see a HiRes Google Earth map of the River Jordan Basin and the five countries. On a side bar, there are several links to background information about the Middle East water crisis. There is also a section where the user can go to a campaign site supporting water and sanitation projects in the Middle East. The viewer can click on a button to watch the 52-minute movie in HD fullscreen. The documentary movie Share the Drop will follow environmental protagonists in each of the five countries working towards a solution for the water crisis. After watching the movie, the user can go back to the map on the entry page. Here a trail in the form of a drop called Drop Trail is visible and runs over the five countries in a loop. At selected locations along the trail, the viewer can click on a personal story of a person living at that spot. The personal story consists of a HD interview and an edited clip of FLIP camera footage that the person on the ground filmed him- or herself.

Photos and images will give geographical background. There is also a comment section where the viewer can give his or her reaction on the clips. The country map on the entry site will also feature the profile of each protagonist, which will be clickable. The user can get background of the character, their profession and mission and the ability to choose from video clips from the movie and react on them. The webdoc is integrated with text and background on the water issues in the Middle East with links to important water website and organisations. After the interactive experience, the viewer will have a sense of how it is like living in the Jordan river basin, hearing and seeing ordinary people telling their own personal water stories and daily survival during a drought period. DEVELOPMENT PLAN Production method The director together with local filmmakers in Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon will develop and produce the feature documentary movie following the five environmental protagonists. This feature documentary will be webcast on the Share the Drop website. Next to that, the director will undertake a trail to film and follow human stories and produce these into various short clips to be uploaded on the website. This production will take place during a period of 2-3 months drought over summer 2010. The crew will follow a trail in the form of a drop hence the name Drop Trail. The trail starts from South Lebanon, through Syria, Jordan, Palestine and finally ending in Israel at the shore of the Sea of Galilee. At selected sites along the trail, the director will film a personal interview of someone who has to cope with the water crisis around her or him. The crew will also carry 3 flip cameras visiting water communities along the trail. The FLIP cameras will give the local people the opportunity to record their life for one day so they can film their water problems and their surroundings. Using a mobile MacBook Pro mobile edit suite, the stories will be edited on the spot and uploaded on a weekly basis on the Share the Drop interactive website. On the website, the stories are georeferenced and placed on an interactive map which is generated using Google Earth. The people from the stories and others from the Middle East and a wider audience using the internet can react on the stories in a forum. The website will also give background information in text, photographs and images about the various water issues and hydropolitics in the Jordan River Basin communities. Inspiration for this trail approach is taken from the Interview Project of David Lynch. Using social media (Facebook, Twitter) and other awareness raising tools, the trail will be announced so internet traffic will be driven to the website. The campaign linked to Share the Drop will consists of the use of social media like twitter and facebook. But because most communities in the region do not have direct access to internet, the campaign will also be developed with the parallel production of a community theatre play in that features the water crisis. This theatre play will go on a tour in the region to be performed for various communities. Production team Joshka Wessels/director (Netherlands/Palestine) & Saed Abu Hmud/co-director (Palestine) Francesca deChatel (Lebanon/Syria), Dana Tabari (Jordan), Orly Halpern (Israel) Tarmak Films: Dana & Eric Trometer (Lebanon, UK) Plan Filming for the movie (teaser and trailer) has taken place over the summer 2009 in Palestine and partly in Israel. We work together with filmmakers based in the region and have partnerships with local and international partners. The next phase of the development plan consists of producing a BETA version for the interactive website in cooperation with Tarmak films, script development and the development of a detailed organisational and production plan for both the Movie and the Drop Trail which will produce the human stories to be uploaded on the website. DEVELOPMENT BUDGET SUMMARY Development of BETA version interactive website Research, script development, production plan Movie and Drop Trail Editing of trailer feature movie Total Development Budget 1500 1500 2000 5000