Host a Water Justice Film Festival in your community!
Whether you have a group of 15 or 1,500 people, film is a great way to bring a community together, learn about the issues, have fun, and inspire discussion. Below is a list containing only some of the wonderful films which have been made around themes of water justice. For help in organizing a festival, obtaining films, and/or finding speakers and experts in your area, contact Water for All at cmep@citizen.org or 202.588.1000.
The first Water Justice Film Festival was organized in Washington, D.C., on April 21-27, 2004.
Click here for a comprehensive list of films on the International Financial Institutions.
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 lose 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.
Dead in the Water
CBC
Year: 2004
There's a problem with the world's water supply. One in four people on earth doesn't have access to clean drinking water. Water and sanitation infrastructures are crumbling. We keep using more of it, yet continue to degrade and deplete it.
Powerful companies spotted a crisis and saw a business opportunity.From Moncton, New Brunswick to Atlanta, Georgia and Buenos Aires, Argentina to Soweto, South Africa, the fifth estate's Linden MacIntyre investigates the results of the effort to privatize what many consider a public trust. Adapted from the International Consortium of Journalists' seminal project, The Water Barons.
Water Wars: Struggle in the Holy Land
Director: Iain Taylor
Year: 1997
Time: 26 min
Could the war of the next century be over water rather than oil or politics? Demand for this most basic of resources is outstripping supply in some parts of the world and it is in these areas that the seeds of future wars have already been sown. Struggle in the Holy Land focuses on the apparent water inequalities between Palestinians and Israeli settlers in the West Bank and Gaza.
Thirsting for War
Director: Christopher Mitchell
Length: 50 min
Water, one of life's necessities, is becoming a source of conflict on a global scale, much like oil. This film takes a comprehensive look at the struggle for control of water in the Middle East, specifically in Turkey, Syria and Iraq. Thirsting for War explores the political and economic dimensions of the growing tension in the region with great clarity. It is also sensitive to the personal dimension of these problems, including interviews with the displaced and suffering.
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
Year: 2002
Director: Franny Armstrong
Length: 75 min
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...
Words on Water
Director: Sanjay Kak
Year: 2002
Length: 85 min
Kak’s new film joins the growing filmic documentation of the struggle of the people of the Narmada Valley against the big dams that threaten to submerge their lands, displace them from their homes and slowly but surely, cut them off from their traditions and their cultures. The centre of the film is the Narmada Bachao Andolan and its dedication to non-violent and democratic means of resistance. The tireless efforts of the activists and the Indian government’s growing impatience with these (peaceful and legal) protests are the opposing poles that give the film its internal dynamic.
The Never Never Water
Director: Alessandra Speciale
Year: 2002
Length: 48 min
The “water lords” have arrived in the Sahel as well. In Ougadougou, Burkina Faso, the search for water has always been an exhausting chore. In addition to the shortage of water there is now also the threat of privatization. In this period of drought, people crowd around the wells, waiting hours to fill a few buckets. Midway between reportage and narrative story-telling, this documentary tells the story of Moussa, an itinerant water seller in the suburbs of the capital. It is a mesmerizing and paced tale of water justice at a very personal level.
Attacking the Commons
Director: Tom Jackson
Year 2004
In Nicaragua, people are overwhelmingly opposed to water "privatization". Yet the World Bank and IMF continue to pressure the Nicaraguan government to hand over this most precious resource to corporations. If the broken promises of better water quality, access and affordability in other countries which have privatized are not enough evidence, what of the failures that have already taken place after privatizing other Nicaraguan utilities? Hear what Nicaraguans have to say, as well as commentary from Vandana Shiva, Maude Barlow and others.
The Water is Ours, Damnit!
Directors: Sheila Franklin and Ravi Khanna
Year: 2000
Length: 33 min
Focuses on the successful fight against the privatization of water in Chochabamba, Boliva. Through Interviews and riveting footage of street battles that took place between Novermber 1999 and April of 2000, people of Cochabamba tell the story of how they were able to take back control of their water; forcing the government to nullify the contract that sold the city’s water to US-based Bechtel Corporation.
Profits of Doom
Director: John Kampfner
Year: 2001
Ghana was once hailed by the World Bank as a showcase for its policies. Today, after two decades of financial "discipline" the majority of Ghanaians are worse off than before. John Kampfner has been to Ghana tracing the roots of the growing protest movement where the World Bank is now pushing for privatization of water.
Orange Farm Water Crisis
Director: Christina Hotz
Year: 2003
The Privatization of the Environment: Water. The video Orange Farm Water Crisis shows water privatization in the form of pre-paid water meters in South Africa. The video exists thanks to the activists of the Orange Farm Water Crisis & video activists from around the world many of whom were in Johannesburg for the World Summit of Sustainable Development in 2002.
White Gold
Director: Ben Cashdan
Year: 2001
Length: 32 minutes
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?
Leasing the Rain
Bill Moyers’ Now
Moyers examines the privatization of Cochabamba, Bolivia’s water and the subsequent “water war” which led to the expulsion of corporate privateer Bechtel.
A Journey in the History of Water I-IV
Length: 4 sections X 45 min
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.
The Milagro Beanfield War
Director: Robert Redford
Year: 1988
A dispute over land in arid New Mexico comes to a head when water rights become involved.
Chinatown
Director: Roman Polanski,
Year: 1974
Starring Jack Nicholson, a private detective investigating an adultery case stumbles on to a scheme of murder that has something to do with water.
Reclaiming Water
Director: Angela Alston
Year: 2003
Length: 35 min
Thousands of people arrived in Kyoto, Japan, last March for the Third World Water Forum. An enormous trade show, the WWF is also an opportunity for transnational corporations and governments to present far-reaching strategies for managing and financing water. This year, grassroots activists also attended, determined to present alternatives. Reclaiming Water is their story. The documentary interweaves personal stories, strategy sessions, and analysis with striking footage of Japan.
Plumbing the Rights, Part 1
Earth Report
Year: 2003
Lenght: 26 min
Focuses on the issue of water as a common property and a right that is indistinguishable from the right to life. The film documents local communities from India and South Africa striving to maintain this right in the face of official opposition.
Plumbing the Rights, Part 2 - Governing the Right to Water
Earth Report
Year: 2003
Lenght: 26 min
Is water a gift from God, a human right, or just a resource to be traded like any other? Now the World Health Organisation is using the concept of human rights to help achieve clean water for all and to find remedies for the crisis in governance, which, they argue, denies people their right to life. Earth Report visits communities in Ghana and Bolivia who are now fighting for their rights to water.
Land of the Rising Water
Earth Report
Year: 2002
Lenght: 26 min
Examines Japan's success in urban water management to tackle floods and conserve the country's wetlands. Also offers community initiatives like rainwater harvesting that could show the way.
Tell-Tale Signs
Earth Report
Year: 2003
Lenght: 26 min
Climate change and its impact on the availability of water is the subject of Tell Tale Signs in Orissa in India and Mozambique in Africa. The film puts forth a strong case for communities and official agencies to work together to adapt to changing climate.
Boiling Point
Earth Report
Year: 2003
Lenght: 26 min
Conflict on sharing of the waters in the Okavango river system in Africa, the Rio Grande in North America and West Bank in water-starved Middle East. The need of the hour, as hydrologist Peter Ashton points out in the film, is to "balance" all concerns, but is anybody listening?
Pumping Pressure
Earth Report
Year: 2003
Lenght: 26 min
This short film documents the plight of mining affected people in South Africa. Gujarat, India where communities have found new ways to catch rainfall. Water scarcity has forced farmers to innovate.
Tunnel Vision
Director: Joshka Wessels, Earth Report
Year: 2003
Lenght: 26 min
Dutch filmmaker Joshka Wessels spent two years making Tunnel Vision. Wessels has recorded the revival in Syria of a system of underground irrigation that started to fall into disuse at the time of the Roman occupation. The 'Qanats' are a membrane of tunnels starting again to supply water to farmers in this arid country. In the Gulf it's called the 'fallaj'. It is believed the Persians invented the system almost three thousand years ago. A case of back to the future?
Dam Dam Dam
Earth Report
Year: 2003
Lenght: 26 min
Big dams. Love them or hate them, we have to live with them. Environmental campaigners contend that vast schemes such as the Three Gorges in China or Narmada in India are social and environmental catastrophes in the making. But their backers have a different view. Big dams provide non-polluting energy and control flooding. On the eve of the World Water Forum Earth Report presents the case for and against big dams.
Water on the Brain
Earth Report
Year: 2003
Lenght: 26 min
Water will be on the brains of thousands of delegates and NGOs gathering for the 3rd World Water Forum in Japan. Many hundreds of thousands are also internet participants via the Virtual Water Forum. In this programme Earth Report features a cross-section of experts, ministers and the people who live daily with the struggle to find enough clean water to survive. What are their expectations for the Forum? Will the world emerge with a do-able plan for meeting the water 'crisis'?
Harvest of Rain
Centre for Science and Environment
Year: 1995
Lenght: 48 min
Dedicated to India's traditional water harvesting systems. One of the basic principles of water management is simplicity itself - conserve water where it falls. But we tend to chase hydraulic nightmares: big dams and canals. An age-old wisdom lies forgotten. The camera wanders through Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu, recording the profound science of the people.
Thar: Secrets of the Desert
Centre for Science and Environment
Year: 1995
Lenght: 52 min
Watch the diverse social and cultural practices which enabled large populations to survive in the harsh Indian desert environment. The villages of Thar, in Rajasthan, have amazing systems of water harvesting. Similarly, the desert farmer has devised an ingenious system to grow and maintain sources of fodder.
Waterworks India: Four Engineers and A Manager
Centre for Science and Environment
Year: 1998
Lenght: 22 min
Meet five 'ordinary' people, who have kept the intricate traditional science of water management alive from the modern onslaught. These barefoot Indian rural engineers have been practicing the tradition of water harvesting for quite some time. This film introduces the viewer to the technique and social management practices governing community water management.
Arvari
Centre for Science and Environment
Year: 2000
Lenght: 14 min
A major people's movement in rural Rajasthan has revived the river Arvari and its tributaries. Water management techniques have completely changed the landscape and lives in this once-denuded region.
A Narmada Diary
Directors: Anand Patwardhan and Simantini Dhuru
Lenght: 60 min
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?
The Water Wars: Good As Gold
Producer: Michael Waldman
Year: 1991
Lenght: 3X50 min
This is a trio of programmes investigating the role of water in power politics, 'Good as Gold' focuses on the United States where water is a highly marketable commodity. The second programme, 'To the last Drop', the focus shifts to the Middle East where water inevitably raises the stakes within every regional dispute or settlement. The final programme, 'The Giver of Life', highlights the Islamic heartland of the former CIS where the implications of the Aral Sea's demise are viewed as a catastrophe on a Chernobyl scale.
Everybody Lives Downstream
Producer: Luke Gawin
Year: 1999
Lenght: 26 min
This BBC Earth Report film uses state-of-the-art graphics to guide the viewer through this intercontinental journey of a symbolic river from source to sea. Interviews with top experts and international decision-makers reinforce the message of the World Day for Water: all the water that we use is second-hand.
Water Ways
Producer: Romaine Lancaster
Year: 1999
Lenght: 24 min
The theme is using water wisely. Most of the stories in this film come from the developing world where unsustainable demands on rivers and underground sources are being made. In Malaysia, a model WWF campaign is getting the message through that protecting forested watersheds is the key to keeping streams clean and flowing all year round; in Nepal, ram-pumps are proving popular; in South Africa, children playing on a roundabout pump up water for a nearby vegetable garden; in Greece, water 'cigars' are coming to the rescue of parched Aegean islands.
Our Liquid Assets
Producer: Luke Gawin
Year: 1998
Lenght: 26 min
The world's wetlands are often treated as wasteland - but as this Global Edition on wetlands illustrates, marshes, swamps and floodplains are important homes for wildlife, sources of freshwater, filters for pollution, and barriers against floodwaters.
To Dam or not to Dam
Lenght: 24 min
Activists and many affected people believe that building dams are bad decisions, and some have even died trying to prove it. This film examines the findings of the World Commission on Dams on the question: To Dam or not to Dam? The Commission spent two and a half years of exhaustive research and intense dialogue searching for the answer.
Rivers Of Sand
Director: Bruno Sorrentino
Year: 1991
Lenght: 52 min
The film shows how the people of Mali have been able to fight back the encroaching desert. Water has been brought in from river Niger through pipes and fed into lakes in a hope to provide new life to them.
The film received: Grand Prix Winner, UNESCO Jardiniers du Monde (1993, France); Nomination Finalist-Photography, BAFTA (1992, UK); Honourable Mention, American Film and Video Festival (1992, UK); First Prize, Environmental Problems in Management & Natural Resources Category, EKOFILM (1992, Czech Republic); Geneva International Prize for Television, Rencontres Medias Nord-Sud (1992, Switzerland); Best UK Documentary, One World Broadcasting Trust (1991, UK)
Fate Worse Than Floods
Director: Bjørn Vassness's
Year: 1996
Lenght: 48 min
Bjørn Vassness's candid documentary on how the designers of the Flood Action Plan (FAP) in Bangladesh failed to consult the local people about their needs leading to widespread death and destruction.
The Green Deserts
Year: 1988
Lenght: 48 min
A fascinating account of the history of Oman's unique, sophisticated water management systems called 'falaj' and the importance Omanis attach to its upkeep. The 'falaj' is a marvel of civil engineering, creating oasis in the desert.
Mucking Up The Mediterranean
Lenght: 52 min
Over-development, fishing, relentless dumping of industrial waste and sewage have turned the Mediterranean sea into a breeding ground for diseases. The prospect of cleaning up also looks grim. The film takes a look at this crippling issue of water pollution and its after effects.
China Roadshow
Year: 1998
Lenght: 26 min
This film travels to the forests of the Tibetan Plateau to investigate the role of deforestation and land degradation in the massive flooding that has taken so many lives. The film visits the site of the World's largest dam, at the scenic Three Gorges on the Yangtze river-a controversial project, which aims to control flood waters and generate electricity.
Drinking the Sky
Director: Joost de Haas
Year: 2000
Lenght: 24 min
In 'Drinking the Sky', Dutch filmmaker Joost de Haas travels first to the wettest place on earth, then the driest. In Cherapunjee, north-east India and to the Atacama desert in Chile. Both places are populated - and therein lie the intrigue: how do you cope with life in the deluge and life in the driest spot on earth? In a film full of surprises de Haas looks at water management in a couple of places where it really matters.
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