Flow: For the Love of Water
Film Screening and Discussion, March 11th, 6pm
With two-thirds of the world’s population expected to run short of fresh drinking water by 2025, water has come to be known as “the oil of the 21st century.” Multinational corporations are parlaying the misery of our water–starved regions into profits for their stockholders and executives. Water privatization – turning the operation, control, or ownership of public water supplies over to corporations – is increasing both overseas and in the United States. With each drop of water that falls into the hands of private interests, any sustainable solution to the global water crisis moves further and further from the public’s grasp.
Join CPE and the Movement Generation Justice and Ecology Project for a screening of the internationally acclaimed film Flow: For the Love of Water and post-film discussion with activist and writer Jeff Conant of Food and Water Watch. Jeff will guide a post-film Q&A and discussion and will highlight accounts of water justice movements in the Global South fighting for local control of their water.
b/t Valencia and Guerrero, San Francisco
(space is wheelchair accessible)
$5-$10 donation requested, no one turned away for lack of funds
In preparation for the event, we’re including a series of readings that might stimulate discussion:
1) On the Threshold of a Global Water Crisis, Maude Barlow speech at Water Rights conference in Mexico City, March 2006: http://www.blueplanetproject.net/RightToWater/documents/Maude_Mexico_2006-03.pdf
2) Clashes Over Global Water Policy in Mexico City, Upside Down World: http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/232/5
3) Defeating the Multinationals Is Just the Start of the Problem for Anti-Globalization Movements, Alternet: http://www.alternet.org/story/117988/defeating_the_multinationals_is_just_the_start_of_the_problem_for_anti-globalization_movements/
4) Tap dreams: Who controls what we drink? Corporate water comes to (and from) San Francisco, SF Bay Guardian: http://www.sfbg.com/entry.php?entry_id=7650
About Flow: Irena Salina’s film FLOW: For Love of Water is a comprehensive look at water issues around the world. Both moving and informative, FLOW shows us the struggles that communities from Michigan to India are undertaking to protect their most precious resource—water. Salina builds a case against the growing privatization of the worldʼs dwindling fresh water supply with an unflinching focus on politics, pollution, human rights, and the emergence of a domineering world water cartel. 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.
Jeff Conant is the International Research and Communications Coordinator for Food and Water Watch and a coordinating member to the Red VIDA, a coalition of water rights groups active throughout the Americas. He coordinated and co-authored the popular education manual, A Community Guide to Environmental Health. He has been working with grassroots groups in the global south for over a decade and regularly publishes articles in a variety of independent media.