Vice President of Radio Television Nacional de Colombia
(RTVC), Mauricio Velez Dominguez, presents his concept for
a film about water at the 1h2o Leadership Summit held
in Johannesburg, South Africa on May 9. Filmakers and
broadcasters from India, Colombia, South Africa and
Bahrain presented their ideas at the Summit.

Each country will produce a film about a nationally relevant water issue with funding from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.  The University of Miami, for its part, will provide a visually compelling non-verbal film entitled 1H2O aimed at introducing audiences in each participating country to human beings’ relationship to water around the world.

“One of the exciting aspects of this project is that it convenes independent producers and an international team of public broadcasters to share programming, ideas and strategies about an issue that affects every part of the world. This kind of collaboration is very new. In the long term, ITVS hopes it will plant the seed for more collective approaches between independents and public broadcasters about our most pressing global issues,” said, Sally Fifer, president and CEO of ITVS.

Each one-hour time slot will consist of the non-verbal 1H2O coupled with the film made by a filmmaker from each of the participating countries. Public broadcasters in each country have agreed to provide airtime for this unique effort around World Water Day, March 22, 2009. The partners will invite international organizations, government agencies and nongovernmental organizations to organize water-related events and activities around the national broadcasts.

“The world will never solve its most difficult problems until nations learn to communicate better across national borders. This initiative uses experimental documentaries to help focus attention on the world’s most pressing problems,” said Eric Newton, vice president of the journalism program at the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

The Knight Center/ITVS partnership was preceded by the completion of the motion picture One Water at the University of Miami. More than five years in the making, One Water aims to bring attention to the world’s water crisis through the creation of compelling, journalistic stories around the world. “We see the completion of One Water as an occasion for the creation of more media on multiple platforms worldwide,” said Sanjeev Chatterjee, executive director of the Knight Center for International Media and the film’s producer, co-director and writer.

The Knight Center for International Media/ITVS partnership has also created a web site: http://1H2O.org. The recently launched site publishes work by international journalists, citizen journalists, filmmakers and multimedia authors interested in producing journalistic materials that help illuminate the world’s potable water situation.

About the University of Miami Knight Center for International Media: The mission of the Center is to integrate scholastic and creative energies to serve and transform the global journalism and communication profession. The Center is engaged with media projects that are aimed at having impact across national borders.  Please visit http://www.knight.miami.edu.

About ITVS: The Independent Television Service (ITVS) brings to local, national and international audiences high-quality, content-rich programs created by a diverse body of independent producers. ITVS programs take creative risks, explore complex issues, and express points of view seldom seen on commercial or public television. ITVS programming reflects voices and visions of underrepresented communities and addresses the needs of underserved audiences. ITVS is the largest content provider of independent documentaries for public television. Learn more about ITVS, visit http://www.itvs.org.

About Knight Foundation
The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation promotes journalism excellence worldwide and invests in the vitality of the U.S. communities where the Knight brothers owned newspapers. Since 1950 the foundation has granted nearly $400 million to advance journalism quality and freedom of expression. Knight Foundation supports ideas and projects that create transformational change.

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