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 Eduardo Mestre
Water Tribune Director
The Water Tribune is a laboratory of ideas and knowledge that contribute, with the aid of experts, scientists, technicians, academics, managers, politicians, communicators and artists, to reorient the paradigm of water, which has nowadays been thrown into a deep crisis. This novel experience at the heart of an international Exposition will permit Zaragoza 2008 to identify itself in the future as a daring pledge that will not only leave behind a memory immortalized in publications, catalogs and various constructive testimonies, but also a seedbed of knowledge.
This will have the multiplying effect of contributing to improving the quality of life of our Earth and its manifold inhabitants. The Water Tribune has opened its doors to numerous propositions. Amongst these, cinema has occupied a privileged place. Over 180 hours of film, with the underlying theme of Water and Sustainable Development, have created a permanent window on international occurrences, notably through unedited presentations projected during numerous manifestations. Productions conceived in diverse corners of the planet have brought, via fiction, animation or documentary, a heritage of images closely linked to the thematic programming of the Water Tribune. They have proven themselves as splendid reinforcements and were shown to be of invaluable support at the intellectual debates developed by the Tribune through certain means such as the Thematic Weeks. Visitors attracted by the seductive offer of the Exposition had the opportunity to throw themselves into the very actual debate on the subject of water through audiovisual propositions of this Tribune. The image, always very engaging to human perception, has revealed itself as a persuasive arm to mobilize consciences, provide tools for the construction of new social references, and elicit an impulse to construct a world more involved with its surroundings and more socially just.
 Pedro Medina
Animadrid Director
In the short film The Mighty River (Canada, 1993), the director Frédéric Back tells the story of a great Canadian river and its rich estuary, of the different species inhabiting its currents and of the populations that have developed along its banks, initially living in harmony with its resources but who, throughout the centuries, have overexploited them and eventually destroyed them. The images displayed throughout the short film are imbued with a quality that could rival any other documentary, not for their realism but for their evocative power and the force by which their messages are driven. This film is also especially one of the most beautiful animation works that was ever created. In the world of cinema, animation is an art which can give the illusion of conveying life to any object, real or imaginative, with no concern for its form or its basic material, bestowing it movement and, with the unlimited inventive capacity of the authors, emotions. And in this we find water. From a single drop, flowing along the small and large rivers reaching towards the immensity of the seas and the oceans, the animation cinema permits us to imagine water in all its forms. It can be drawn, either with crayon, wax or paint. It can even be represented using a diversity of techniques and a variety of mediums, such as with modelling clay, paper, shadows and even sand, and with the advent of digital programming, water can be recreated with the utmost realism and attention to detail. Unfortunately, despite the illusion of reality, animation cannot truly recreate water that can be consumed, savoured, and completely benefited from, particularly in areas where it is a rarity or cannot be found at all. To the contrary, within the context of Back’s film and drawing on it as an example, the animation cinema has succeeded in using its unlimited possibilities for creation to realize films that speak to us of men and women of our world and the problems affecting them. They have been provided with tools that give them independence of thought as well as the means to rebel against the injustices committed by humans themselves, such as the uncontrolled exploitation of natural resources and their eventual destruction. Fortunately, there will always be animators ready to agitate our senses and stimulate our conscience with their works… |
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