White Waters


White Waters is a 2007 slice of life drama film directed by Izu Ojukwu. The film received 12 nominations and won four awards at the 4th African Movie Academy Awards including winning Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Sound and Best Actress award in a Supporting Role for Joke Silva.

Plot

The movie happens in the setting of 1963, Opelika, Alabama. The story is seen through the eyes of a seven-year-old young Micheal. The first scene of the movie opens with Micheal and his mother going to town through the public bus, and his own way of seeing the segregation between the whites and black at the time in a comical way. He meets a white boy named Tommy of the same age and starts getting friendly. After getting off both head towards the water fountain and Micheal sees how Tommy drinks water for a long time creating an image of how the water is. He then becomes obsessed with the "White Water" but realises he cannot do it, as the white water fountain and colour water fountain are separate. As the movie goes on we see Micheal trying to conjure ways to drink it. Bribing his cousin Randal with toys, he pleads him to not spill his secrets to his mother. Through a series of events Micheal, Randal and a friend Cassandra end up around the county sheriffs office, and have to escape when one of the men find him. During this process, they get separated and Micheal gets lost. Finally, after almost evading death, he comes and stands in front the very same fountain he was obsessed with. In the end he realises it was the same water and says, "On the surface it looks different, but on the inside its all the same...I saw that fountain at a whole new angle".