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A Ripple in the Water: Healing Through Art About |
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Shot on location throughout South Africa and narrated by Charlayne Hunter-Gault, this award-winning documentary focuses on the inspiring work of artist/activist Kim Berman. She mobilizes people to use papermaking, printmaking, and embroidery to address HIV/AIDS, poverty alleviation, and the empowerment of women and children across South Africa. At a grass roots level, she has inspired thousands of people, who face great adversity, to live the best lives that they possibly can.
Narrated by acclaimed journalist Charlayne Hunter-Gault, A Ripple in the Water: Healing Through Art focuses on the work of South African artist/activist Kim Berman, who teaches others to use art as a tool to promote healing and positive social transformation. An active member of the anti-apartheid movement in the 80's, Berman helped the world community to see what was happening by smuggling incriminating visual footage out of South Africa, at a time when there was a complete media blitz, and being caught was punishable by imprisonment. Her self-imposed exile in Boston ended the day Mandela was released from prison. Berman answered his call to all South Africans to help in the building of a new democracy by returning home to start a community based learning center for impoverished yet talented young black artist, who otherwise would have been left behind with no resources to join the new mainstream after apartheid ended. She founded Artist Proof Studio in Johannesburg, and her outreach programs grew to include a national grassroots campaign aimed at addressing the HIV/AIDS pandemic through creativity, counseling and solidarity. Next, to address poverty and its host of related social problems, she spearheaded a network of hand-papermaking/craft projects in 21 urban and rural sites, creating hundreds of jobs, primarily for women, which greatly improved peoples' chances for survival while adding a sense of meaning and value to their lives. Filmed across 900 miles of South Africa, including interviews with people of diverse backgrounds and cultures, this documentary examines the human experience by considering how the long-term effects of a nation's brutal history can be overcome by each and every one of us, individually and collectively. The film tracks the successes and failures of individuals, government organizations, and local projects.
The film's narrator, Charlayne Hunter-Gault calls the documentary "inspirational," as it is a view of South Africa rarely seen in the United States. Berman's work will be particularly important to an American audience, because in this country, art is often seen as expendable, as one of the first things that is cut when budgets are tight. Yet through the use of art, Berman found a unique and surprising way to help people. The film depicts the story of Kim's unique approach to these social concerns, along with the stories of many of the women who have been directly affected by her initiatives. Through their words and their faces, the audience will see the true impact of what art has done for them.
Viewers will see how art contributes more to our world than ever previously imagined; besides the common notion of art simply enriching our lives, the audience will learn about the humanitarian aspects, extraordinary social and economic advantages, and cross-cultural communication benefits as well.
This documentary will spread awareness, highlighting the fact that there are still areas of the world where HIV/AIDS is not under control. There are Americans who have a false sense of security—an illusion that HIV/AIDS is less of a threat because we as a country have access to medical intervention. We are hoping that after watching this film about a positive movement in South Africa, Americans will learn about another culture. They will then perhaps make a decision to help those featured, or to become activists within their own communities.