Cole Hudson

I am Cole Hudson; I’m studying media here at Indiana University in my junior year. On the weekends you can usually find me working as a projectionist for the Ryder film series on campus. I am a member of the newly formed Delta Tau Delta fraternity at IU in which I help with the Little 500 team, building the race bikes in the spring. As a film student I am constantly thinking about how to make people feel things through media and the larger impact that I could have.

For my project I wanted to take advantage of the media skills I have obtained since I have been at Indiana University and more recently this semester so, I decided to make a video. Unfortunately, I felt that I did not have time nor resources to create a narrative or organize a documentary. I decided that I did have enough information from class to share an informational video that could be easy to understand and provide ways in which people could learn more about water whether it be local, national, or global. I used a canon 80D camera to capture local footage of running water from IU’s campus, I then edited the footage together with matching soothing water sounds and added in information in Adobe Premiere. I chose to include a brief history of water and racial inequality in America citing Dr. W. E. B Du Bois, as well as some information about the current state of water systems and what we can do to help. Throughout this semester, Dr. Abegunde was always reminding the class to breathe and playing calming water sounds, so I wanted this project to sort of summarize what it feels like to be in the class that I was in. I want my project to be informative but also remind the viewer to slow down and breathe, to stay calm during what can seem like an endless stream of information. I want to invite the viewer to reflect on their own experiences and how water impacts them and that’s why I start my project inviting the viewer the ask themselves questions about the frequency of water use and how much we think about it.

I have been extremely fortunate to have never had to worry about water and as a result I absolutely love water. My favorite are lakes, my family has a cabin on a small lake in Canada that has been passed down from my great grandfather to my father and eventually one day, to me. I see water as something that is important to my family, but it also connects us to the rest of the world.

When I first watched Pumzi I thought that the message was a little heavy handed but upon watching it a second time I think I may have had the message wrong originally. I first thought that Pumzi was warning of a dystopian future if we keep on our current track. Now I see it as more of an interpretation of the situation currently, the way people are sheltered from the truth and taught that there is nothing they can do. I think Pumzi like many other projects from my class invites us to reflect on our own relationship with water and to fight the feeling that we can’t make a difference.

References:

“Human Rights to Water and Sanitation: UN-Water.” UN, https://www.unwater.org/water-facts/human-rights-water-and-sanitation.

Montag, Coty. “NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc..” Https://Www.naacpldf.org/Wp-Content/Uploads/Water_Report_FULL_5_31_19_FINAL_OPT.Pdf, 2019, https://www.naacpldf.org/wp-content/uploads/Water_Report_FULL_5_31_19_FINAL_OPT.pdf.

The Issue With Water by Cole Hudson is marked with CC0 1.0