We stopped buying plastic water bottles a couple of years ago after our environmentally conscious son led by example. We did this because we realized that our tap water is actually as good as any of the bottled water out there and because having a blue box full of empty plastic water bottles was excessive. I didn’t think there was much more we could do until we had dinner with friends on Friday night.
During our conversation we began talking about documentaries. It seems like more and more of our friends are watching documentaries instead of your typical Hollywood movies. I don’t know if it is a statement on the caliber of movies right now. It is interesting that one of the most impressive movies this summer, District 9, was actually done in the style of a documentary. Maybe that will be a whole other blog post!
The movie, FLOW, was mentioned. Our friend was uncharacteristically passionate about it so we decided to check it out. Literally it seems because it was at our local library.
If you haven’t heard of the movie here is a little about it from the press kit:
Irena Salina’s award-winning documentary investigation into what experts label the most important political and environmental issue of the 21st Century – The World Water Crisis.
Salina builds a case against the growing privatization of the world’s dwindling fresh water supply with an unflinching focus on politics, pollution, human rights, and the emergence of a domineering world water cartel.
Interviews with scientists and activists intelligently reveal the rapidly building crisis, at both the global and human scale, and the film introduces many of the governmental and corporate culprits behind the water grab, while begging the question “CAN ANYONE REALLY OWN WATER?”
Beyond identifying the problem, FLOW also gives viewers a look at the people and institutions providing practical solutions to the water crisis and those developing new technologies, which are fast becoming blueprints for a successful global and economic turnaround.
I was unprepared for how disturbed I was after watching this movie. I don’t know what bothered me more – that corporations are selling water to the poor, the control and lack of accountability of the World Bank in financing big business or the displacing millions of people to build dams ( Up the Yangtze is another documentary on the fallout of building the Three Gorges Dam).
It sickens me and makes me angry to think about the oppression of the poor, destruction of our environment and the power of big business.
In the meantime I invite you to join me in signing ARTICLE 31
Sign the petition to add a 31st article to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, establishing access to clean water as a fundamental human right.
Sign the Petition Here
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