THE FILM

Three choices. Move to the slums in the city, accept a place at a resettlement site or stay at home and drown.

The people of Jalsindhi in central India must make a decision fast. In the next few weeks, their village will disappear underwater as the giant Narmada Dam fills.

Bestselling author Arundhati Roy joins the fight against the dam and asks the difficult questions. Will the water go to poor farmers or to rich industrialists? What happened to the 16 million people displaced by fifty years of dam building? Why should I care?

DROWNED OUT follows the Jalsindhi villagers through hunger strikes, rallies, police brutality and a six-year Supreme Court case. It stays with them as the dam fills and the river starts to rise...

Website for the film here

REVIEWS

"At once angry, compassionate, disturbing and yet empowering, it makes for urgent and necessary viewing" - TIME OUT

"Heartbreaking" - SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE

"Documentaries rarely, if ever, come better than this" - BERMUDA ROYAL GAZETTE

"Masterfully crafted" - ONEWORLD AWARDS JURY

"Quiet, fierce, beautiful" - NEW INTERNATIONALIST

PEOPLE and PLANET Film Season

Many of us are concerned by human poverty as well as the impacts of climate change. However, we rarely think of how intimately connected these issues are.

The People and the Planet film series explores how the well-being of our planet and its people are deeply linked.

Friday 27th February, 7.30: WE FEED THE WORLD

Wednesday 4th March, 7.30: CLIMATE FEVER - In conjunction with Transition Initiative Newcastle

Two short films looking at the effects of global warming, followed by discussion with guest speakers

Wednesday 11th March, 7.30: BETWEEN MIDNIGHT AND THE ROOSTER'S CROW

A documentary on the environmental and social impacts of mining in Ecuador's rainforest.

Wednesday 18th March: DROWNED OUT

A film about a family's stand against the building of a dam in India, a fight against the destruction of their land, home and culture.