“Pani Check—The Sisterhood of Water”: A Transdisciplinary Documentary Film Project

The transdisciplinary cooperation between a hydrogeologist and a freelance filmmaker resulted in two films about a participatory and interdisciplinary socio-hydrogeological project of Freie Universitat Berlin, Germany, which took place in India between 2016 and 2019: Rekha Devi and Zeenat Begum have a problem: the little water in their slum is of poor quality. Hydrogeologist Theresa Frommen is asked to help. But can illiterate women learn the scientist's complicated methods? And is the hydrogeologist prepared to get involved in the social structures of an Indian slum? A story of women empowerment in slums of India, where water supply is a challenge every day. It shows a contrasting picture of scientific research and its impacts on the social structures. “Pani Check – The Sisterhood of Water” is a 52-min documentary about the project, where the camera itself served as a research instrument and thus made new insights possible. The conclusion: the more different the ways of thinking and working, the broader a team is positioned in terms of its resources to solve a problem in a complementary and creative way.