Manchester Film Co-op invites you to join us for a double bill on the privatisation of water. Each film focuses on a strong community, resisting governments and multi-nationals to keep the most precious life-giving element, water, free to all.

The documentary Weaving Resistance looks at life in a Munduruku village, where traditional skills are practised and children are brought up with remarkable freedom. The video documents the growth of resistance against the series of hydroelectric dams, including among the women, who have a crucial role in this struggle, and that are now also emerging as guerreiras (woman warriors) in the light against these plans.

Our second film is the 2010 drama Even the Rain, in which a Spanish film crew helmed by idealistic director Sebastian (Gael García Bernal) and his cynical producer Costa (Luis Tosar) come to Bolivia to make a revisionist epic about the conquest of Latin America – on the cheap. Carlos Aduviri is dynamic as “Daniel,” a local cast as a 16th century native in the film within a film.

While the shoot progresses in and around the city of Cochabamba, civil and political unrest simmer, as the entire water supply of the city is privatized and sold to a British/American multinational. Violence increases daily until the entire city explodes in the now infamous Bolivian Water War – a war which actually took place in April 2000. 500 years after Columbus, sticks and stones once again confront the high-tech weaponry of a modern army. David against Goliath. Only this time the fight is not over gold, but the simplest of life-giving elements – water.

Date: Tuesday the 29th of September.

Doors: Doors at 19:00.

Entry: Solidarity (optional) £7, Regular £5, Cyclist, £4. Student/low wage £3, Unwaged: donation.

Venue: Yard Theatre, 41 Old Birley Street, Hulme, Manchester. M15 5RF.