WAteRdrops documentary on water privitization will be released on Tuesday May 13, 2014, through our website www.waterdrops.gr. The first round of screenings in the areas this documentary on water privitization in Greece was shot, has concluded in April. The film was welcomed warmly by the audience, so there were many more screenings than those programmed beforehand and we constantly receive emails and phonecalls by groups of people who want to screen the documentary in their towns. This is the best kind of advertisement and a moral compensation for all of us.

It is important now to report how things were up to here and what’s coming next.

AN ACCOUNT

“WAteRdrops” was made by a small group of people who intended to create a documentary to inform people on privitization and destruction of the most precious life resource: water. We had no funds, so we decided to make an open call to groups and independent citizens in order to complete our goal. All crew members agreed to work consistently and professionally, taking the risk their work never being paid back, because it’s a hard bet to expect donations in a country hit by the crisis and also strange to the culture of donations.

We completed the documentary, achieving our goals on research independence and aesthetic results. The funding bet has been partly won.

Up to this time, the donations sum up to 6,500 euros. We received decisive help from abroad, which covered most of this sum. This money has covered all documentary expenses (gear, travel etc.), which was our first goal, since without that money we wouldn’t be able to shoot it in the first place.

The crew remains largely unpaid, although the wages have been calculated on a 25% scale of normal wages. Our preliminary budget was about 13-15 thousand euros. So we still ask for your donations to collect 6,500 euros more. Any extra donations will be used for promotion and festival submissions.

Many people helped us during shooting the documentary, by letting us stay at their homes, by using their vehicles, by spreading the word about the film etc. This great help cannot be counted on a financial basis, yet it saved us a lot of money. This is why we won’t publish a list of financial contributors. We will only mention groups of people or organizations that helped us financially or otherwise.

The online relase of WAteRdrops may be an obstacle to festival submissions or its commercial distribution. This is how we decided to do things, though. We believe that the online release can support the struggle for water protection in Greece and elsewhere. This is why we ask for your help on our next step.

A ROADMAP

We welcome everyone to share, screen, promote and refer to the online release of WAteRdrops and to use it as a tool in the struggle for information and support. We ask you to always mention the source of it. We also ask that all screenings would be with free entrance. Possible commercial screenings or broadcasts should be first cleared with us (contact us at [email protected]).

You can have an open financial support scheme in your screenings. You can either use our posters or make one of your own, you can let us know about your screenings so we can promote them too, you can give us feedback on what people say about our film.

Our bank and PayPal accounts are still valid.

The film will be released with English subtitles and it is also being translated to Spanish by a volunteer. Please, take the initiative to contact or guide us to contact people and groups, festivals and media outlets who may be interested: it is important to have the word on struggles in Greece spread out around the world.

We thank with all our heart everyone who stood by us. We are open to your well-meant critique.

For WAteRdrops team,
Nelly Psarrou
Pantelis Panteloglou