Simple as Water

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Simple as Water

Q&A with Director Megan Mylan

2021. 98 m. Megan Mylan. HBO Documentary Films. US. English and Arabic with subtitles. Rated NR.

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Epic in scope but intimate in feel, Simple as Water is a meditation on the elemental bonds between parent and child from Academy Award-winner Megan Mylan (Lost Boys of Sudan, Smile Pinki). A masterful look at the impact of war, separation, and displacement, Simple as Water takes us into Syrian families’ quests for normalcy and through the whirlwind of obstacles—to building life anew. Filmed in Turkey, Greece, Germany, Syria, and the US, Mylan’s sensitive camera reifies the universal importance of family.

After the Q&A, please join us upstairs in the Jane Peck Gallery for a cocktail reception.

The Jacob Burns Film Center is grateful to Wine Enthusiast for providing the wines for this reception. Wine Enthusiast is the ultimate source of innovation & information about wine.

Tickets: $15 (members), $20 (nonmembers)

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"An achingly poignant testament to the unwavering strength of parental and filial bonds."
Michael Rechtshaffen, Los Angeles Times

"Simple as Water is anything but simple when it comes to its technical achievements, weaving together familiar immigrant narratives in ways that still manage to surprise and stun."
Claire Shaffer, The New York Times

PAST EVENTS

Q&A with director Megan Mylan, moderated by JBFC Senior Film Programmer Monica Castillo

Monday, May. 15 2023, 7:00

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Megan Mylan is an Academy Award winner director who creates observational documentaries with a distinct intimacy. Megan’s films screen both theatrically and on television throughout the world with partners including HBO, ARTE, BBC, NHK, PBS, National Geographic, Hulu, TV Brasil, NDTV and Doordarshan. Her films have raised millions of dollars for charitable causes, recruited thousands of volunteers and informed public policy. Megan won an Academy Award for her documentary Smile Pinki and an Independent Spirit Award for Lost Boys of Sudan which was also a New York Times Critic’s Pick and shortlisted for an Academy Award, as was her most recent feature Simple As Water. She is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Peabody and multiple Emmy nominations and served for several years on the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Executive Committee for Documentary. Before beginning in documentary, Megan worked with Ashoka, an international development non-profit, in the U.S. and Brazil. She has a Bachelor’s from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and Masters' degrees in Journalism and Latin American Studies from the University of California at Berkeley where she was also guest director of the Graduate Documentary program.

This film is part of the Community Matters: Now More Than Ever series.