Film: The Hippo’s Tears

A film by Peter Mack that tells the story of how the tears of a hippopotamus brought water to a village. It turns out to be an advertisement for a rolling water drum that actually looks like a brilliant invention. The girl’s English is some of the most beautifully spoken English I’ve ever heard. I think that the way she says ‘cry’ is particularly lovely.

Short Sci-Fi Film From Kenya: Pumzi

Writer/director Wanuri Kahiu has made a twenty-minute science fiction film in Kenya about a future that takes place after great water wars have left the earth barren and lifeless.  The short, called Pumzi, is playing at the Sundance Film Festival.  It was produced by Inspired Minority Pictures.  The film follows a woman who works for a museum in one of the great self-contained indoor cities of Africa.  She finds a single germinating seed and escapes to the dead landscape outside where she wants to plant the seedling.  The film looks beautiful.  I can’t wait to see the whole thing.