The Water Front on PBS Detroit,

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
LOCAL CONTACT: Curtis Smith, Associate Producer, 313.590.6317
Additional Contact: Liz Miller, Director, 860.922.3995

Detroit Public Television to broadcast The Water Front, a documentary on the fight for water access –

Detroit, Michigan -- Around the world, a battle is escalating concerning one of our most precious natural resources. Even communities close to the Great Lakes may not be able to rely on steady and affordable water access. Residents of Highland Park, Michigan can attest to this unsettling reality. Highland Park is known as the birthplace of the assembly line. It is also a city where its residents have received excessively high water bills; they have had their water turned off and have struggled to keep their water from becoming privatized. The Water Front follows a local water struggle from various angles; city officials challenge to generate revenue to maintain water infrastructure; the municipal water worker’s perspective of working in an under-funded and stressful environment; and finally one woman’s struggle to organize a grassroots campaign to keep her home and defend affordable water as a basic human right.
On the heals of a successful film tour to forty cities and universities around the Great Lakes region and numerous international screenings, The Water Front makes its U.S. television broadcast debut on Detroit Public Television-WTVS Channel 56 on Tuesday, November 17, 2009 at 9:00 pm.

“The Water Front is about water, but it also touches on the very essence of our democratic system,” said Liz Miller, the film’s director. “The film presents a community in crisis but it also presents the powerful enactment of local participation in finding solutions to the problems of our times.”

“The story of the citizens of Highland Park and their struggle for water access is one that should never have to be told in America,” said Wenonah Hauter, executive director of the consumer advocacy group Food & Water Watch, a sponsor of the film’s Great Lakes city tour. “In reality, though, it is repeated in cities across the country. As infrastructure crumbles and communities find themselves unable to fund necessary fixes, more and more cities and towns are turning to privatization …As regular people pay more and more for their water without ever seeing an improvement, the question of who controls their water—and how—is ever more relevant. The Water Front will show citizens who face similar problems that they are not alone, and will inspire people to organize, taking control of local water back into local hands.”

Detroit Public Television-Channel 56 broadcast premiere of The Water Front: Tuesday, November 17, 2009 at 9:00 PM