Mar. 20, 2007 - Issue #596: Monkey Warfare
Water makes the world
Walking into any convenience store, I am always struck by how much of the store is devoted to beverages—they are all basically different varieties of water.
The fact that many do not have nearly the access to safe, clean drinking water seems so far away when I consider which brightly labelled bottle of sugar water I am going to buy and consume. Yet it’s hardly fair that a child dies every 15 seconds due to diseases stemming from unsafe water consumption.
The NFB and Council of Canadians, along with a handful of other organizations have put together a collection of shorts to commemorate the UNESCO-initiated World Water Day on Mar 22.
The films run the gamut of water-inspired animation to short documentaries about the various issues surrounding water.
In Water Thieves, by Sébastien Elias, Elaine Therrien and Emmanuel Joly, we get a fictional dystopian tale about the end of free-running water. Violent criminality erupts, people are like out-of-control jonesing junkies, as everyone does what is needed to get water. Kill or be killed.
In the Liz Miller’s short documentary Water Warriors, about Highland Park, Michigan—where the price of water has gone up 60 per cent in an effort by the city to get out of bankruptcy—we get a statement from a corporate consultant that is the biggest argument against water privatization.
“Certainly, we have compassion for the people,” Steve Egan says. “But the business responsibility limits, I think, how compassionate we can be.” This he says in a city where almost half of the residents have had their water turned off because they can’t afford the exorbitant water bills.
What the eleven films all point to is that water is the ultimate issue where the tides of human rights and business interests meet.
Along with the films, the event will also include a host of guest speakers—from MLA David Swann to fresh water scientist Bill Donahue—to discuss the issues surrounding water and what can be done to keep clean water flowing. V Thu, Mar 22 (6 - 9 pm)
World Water Day
11 shorts by various directors
Stanley A Milner Library
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