Set in the near future, A DROP OF LIFE is the story of two women whose disparate lives intersect when they each are confronted with inhumane lack of clean drinking water.

Mirabai, an impassioned schoolteacher, has left her urban lifestyle to teach in Kutch, Gujurat. When Mira witnesses growing illness among the village children after a pre-paid water meter is installed, she is compelled to take action.

Nia, an ambitious young African-American executive, represents the interests of Hydron, a Manhattan-based water corporation. Nia goes to this Indian village to demonstrate Hydron's new pilot project water pump that dispenses water with a swipe from a pre-paid credit card. When Nia finds herself in need of drinking water without a pre-paid card, both women must confront the horror of this system.

he journey to make A DROP OF LIFE began in India during January 2001 when I spent two months making a documentary film about the Maha Kumbha Mela, a festival in which tens of millions come to bathe in the holy confluence of three rivers. In ancient cultures like India, water is revered as a life-giving mother goddess, infused with the power to sustain life and purify the soul. I was moved by faith in water as sacred and as a common responsibility for the preservation of life.

As I became aware of the mounting global water crisis, I realized that it represented a clash of cultures—between a culture that values water as a shared sacred resource and a corporate culture that regards water as a commodity to be bought and sold. According to the World Bank and the United Nations, water is a human need and not a human right. This distinction clarifies that water can be sold for money while no one can sell a human right. After living many years between India and America, I wondered how water conflicts in the future will affect the already vast disparities between the “First World” and “Third World.” A DROP OF LIFE aims to convey the growing life-threatening divide between people who can afford this vital resource and those who cannot.