Films

COMPILATIONS:

Food and Water Watch Film Library:
an extensive list of films on water
: www.foodandwaterwatch.org/films/films/

Good Food: a collection of shorts on food and sustainability: www.mediathatmattersfest.org/mtm_good_food/

National Film Board - Citizen Shift compilation of shorts on water in Canada and abroad citizen.nfb.ca/onf/info?did=2404

FILMS:

Thirst

Directors: Alan Snitow and Deborah Kaufman
Year: 2004
Length: 62 min.

Thirst
visits communities in Bolivia, India, Japan, and Stockton, California
showing how corporations are rapidly buying up local water supplies.
Communities suddenly loose control of their most precious resources.
Thirst, a character driven documentary with no narration, reveals how
water is the catalyst for explosive community resistance to
globalization.

http://www.thirstthemovie.org/

Gimme Green

Gimme Green is a humorous look at the American obsession with the
residential lawn and the effects it has on the environment, our wallets
and our outlook on life. From the limitless subdivisions of Florida to
sod farms in the arid southwest, Gimme Green peers behind the curtain
of the $40-billion industry that fuels our nation's largest irrigated
crop—the lawn.

http://gimmegreen.com

King Corn

A feature documentary about two friends, one acre of corn, and the subsidized crop that drives our fast food nation. Year: 2007, Just hitting theatres now!

Length: Feature

http://www.kingcorn.net/

Chinatown

Director: Roman Polanski
Year: 1974
Length: 131 min.

Starring Jack Nicholson, a private detective investigating an adultery case stumbles on to a scheme of murder that has something to do with water.

The Milagro Beanfield War

Director: Robert Redford
Year: 1988
Length: 117 min.

A dispute over land in arid New Mexico comes to a head when water rights become involved.

Leasing The Rain

Bill Moyers’ Now
Year: 2002
PBS

Moyers examines the privatization of Cochabamba, Bolivia’s water and the subsequent “water war” which led to the expulsion of corporate privateer Bechtel.

Flooding Job’s Garden

Director: Boyce Richardson
Year: 1991
Length: 59 min.

The James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement of 1975, hailed by governments as a model for future land claims and self-government settlements - is considered Canada's first "modern Treaty." 15 years later, Robert Bourassa's dream of northern hydro-electric power has become a nightmare for the James Bay Cree.

Drowned Out: We Can’t Wish Them Away

Director: Franny Armstrong
Year: 2002
Length: 75 min.
To purchase, click here.

Three choices. Move to the slums in the city, accept a place at a resettlement site or stay at home and drown. An Indian family chooses to stay at home and drown rather than make way for the Narmada Dam. Bestselling author Arundhati Roy joins the fight against the dam and asks the difficult questions. Will the water go to poor farmers or to rich industrialists? What happened to the 16 million people displaced by fifty years of dam building? Drowned Out follows the Jalsindhi villagers through hunger strikes, rallies, police brutality and a six-year Supreme Court case. It stays with them as the dam fills and the river starts to rise...

White Gold

Director: Ben Cashdan
Year: 2001
Length: 32 min.

Katse is the highest dam in Africa. It is one of four under construction in Lesotho. Twelve of the world’s largest construction companies are accused of bribery in the project.
In February 2001, Joburg Metro sent in the "Red Ants" (security officers) to evict families from the banks of the cholera-infected Jukskei River in Alexandra -- where even many residents have no running water.
The Lesotho Highlands Water Project is supposed to provide 70 cubic meters of water per second to thirsty consumers in Gauteng, via tunnels under the Maluti mountains. But since the recent corruption scandal broke, people have started to question the largest dam project in Africa. What about the displaced people? And the construction companies and bureaucrats pocketing our tax money? What is the impact of these costly dams on the poorest families in Alexandra and Soweto, who can no longer afford their water bills? Most of all, do we really need all this extra water?

A Journey in the History of Water I-IV

Director: Terje Tvedt
Length: 4 episodes, 45 min. each
Year: 2001

Tells the dramatic story of how the struggle for fresh water has shaped human society to a remarkable extent. This series brings the viewer to about 20 countries all over the world and shows in fascinating variety how people have coped with what is societies' lifeblood - water.

A Narmada Diary

Directors: Anand Patwardhan and Simantini Dhuru
Year: 1995
Length: 60 min.
To purchase, click here.

Denouncing the inadequacy of resettlement and compensation from the massive Narmada Sardar Dam Project, the adivasis steadfastly refuse to leave their land - even if they drown there. A moving record of the adivasi people's continuing struggle for social justice. On the other hand the Government is sheltering behind talk of national gain, India's `necessary sacrifice' for development - but the film asks, development for whom?