Pour it on

Green Venture's Pete Wobschall will help us celebrate World Water Day this Thursday (March 22) as OPIRG joins forces with the National Film Board of Canada's CITIZENSHIFT to present short films on the subject of water.

Pete brings his creative expertise to the subject that wil engage us all in the struggle to protect a vital natural resource: water.

7pm in the Ewart Angus Centre room 1A6 (McMaster Medical Centre), Thursday, March 22, 2007. Free Admission. [Directions].

Film Programme:
Water We Drinking (10 min) Quebec City, 2004. In French with English subtitles

This short doc packs it all in: Multinational water bottling companies drying the wells of Canadians, soaring repair costs for municipal water service infrastructure leading to the threat of privatization, the experience of privatization around the world that has led to water unfit for human consumption and up to 300% price increases, water use for the Alberta tar sands, the IMF, free trade agreements and the human right to water.

Green Green Water (12 min) Minneapolis, USA, 2005

A familiar tale of the damage created by hydroelectric dams. This is the case of Manitoba’s Cree 30 years after their lands and way of life were destroyed. A proposed doubling of output to deliver “green energy” to the USA is dividing the people once more. Filmed by an American consuming the electricity, we witness a story about “The Power to Connect...The Power to Divide...It’s About Power...”

Water Thieves (14 min) Quebec City, 2003. French with English subtitles

A powerful futuristic drama about a water shortage that leads to some horrific results.

Water Warriors (7 min) Montreal, 2005

Highland Park, an American Great Lakes community, was once the centre of a thriving car industry and the birthplace of Henry Ford's assembly line. Today the city is on the verge of financial and physical collapse and as a result is under a state take-over. A team of corporate emergency managers have been appointed to get the city out of its financial crisis and to do this they have raised water rates, attached unpaid bills to property taxes and are looking to privatize the community's remaining valuable resource - the water plant.

Turn off the tap (1 min) Toronto, 2005

A funky public service announcement on water conservation funded by the municipality of Toronto.

Governor's Brook (10 min) Halifax, 2006

A light-hearted ‘Action for Neighbourhood Change’ production about water pollution and the disappearance of bodies of water due to development and other social/economic factors.

Water Detectives (10 min) Canada/Mexico, 2006

Grade 4 to 7 students learn that their local conservation efforts can have far-reaching results. A severe water shortage led the city of Matamoros, Mexico to enlist thousands of schoolchildren as "water detectives" - educated in concepts of water conservation and encouraged to discuss the importance of proper water usage with adults. Kids were authorized to give "tickets" to transgressors who were seen to be wasting water, and the municipality followed up by fixing leaks and visiting homes. The result? Matamoros lowered its water consumption by nearly 20% in just one year!

River and Road (2 min) Calgary, 2006

A Youth Animation Project, this is a beautifully animated short celebrating the visible and invisible keepers of our watersheds.

Water Water Everywhere...? (23 min) Vancouver, 2001

Entertaining and informative, this film tells the stories of communities around the world and interviews some of the key players in the fight for water as a human right vs water as a need. Half of the doc focuses on Vancouver’s fight against the secret but unsuccessful attempt to privatize its water treatment facility. The other half covers the New Zealand, South African, and Bolivian victories to keep water public.