Thursday, March 21, 2013

Water Docs International Film Festival, Mar 21-24


Ecologos presents the 2nd annual Water Docs International Film Festival
March 21 – 24, 2013
Jackman Hall (AGO – 317 Dundas St. W.)

Water. We send probes to other planets seeking that telltale marker of life. Meanwhile, the fate of our water here on Earth looms as our greatest threat.

The 2nd annual Water Docs International Film Festival is a unique event weaving the leading voices of water awareness with the expressive power of great filmmaking. Produced by the water issues group Ecologos, Water Docs this year will present 17 films, accompanied with director and guest speaker Q&As. All screenings will take place at Jackman Hall at the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO), 317 Dundas St. W., from March 21 – 24, 2013.

This year, Ecologos partners with India’s Voices from the Waters International Film Festival, and on the evening of Saturday March 23, in what promises to be a moving moment, Water Docs will receive the inaugural blessing of Grandmother Josephine Mandamin, an indomitable woman who has walked 16,000 kms around the Great Lakes, praying for the water at every step in the most phenomenal witness to water ever undertaken. The ceremony will be part of the evening’s theme, Water and the Wisdom of Our First Nations Communities.

The 17-film program, meanwhile, covers the entire spectrum of water issues in tones from solemn to hopeful. There are films dealing with impending shortages, like Aarti Shrivastava’s White Knight, about the quest to create artificial glaciers in Ladakh, Northern India, where the actual drinking-watersupplying glaciers are receding at an alarming rate due to global warming.

Elsewhere, climate change threatens to drown people in the stuff – as in Peter Jan van der Burgh and Tshering Gyeltshen’s 86 centimetres, which tells the story of Bhutan in the Himalayas, where glacial lakes threaten to flood entire ecosystems and villages as the ice holding them back disappears. Hidden water will be on tap in Caroline Bâcle’s Lost Rivers, a study of how urbanization has turned surface rivers into forgotten underground waterways in cities like London, Montreal and Toronto. And filmgoers will be introduced to the work of Alex & Tyler Mifflin – a.k.a. The Water Brothers. Their issues run the gamut from the eco-destroying Asian Carp (Carpageddon), which is being barely held back from the Great Lakes by underwater electric fences, to wholesale destruction of the world’s coral reefs (Reefer Madness).

The Festival closes out with the Canadian Premiere of Watershed a film by Mark Decena and James Redford, that tells the story of the threats to the once-mighty Colorado River and offers solutions for the future of the American West. James’ father Robert Redford is executive producer, as well, narrates the film.

Films List and Time:

March 21 – 7pm
White Knight – directed by Aarti Shrivastava (25 mins)
86 centimetres – directed by Peterjan van der Burgh & Tshering Gyeltshen
(39 mins)

March 22 – 7pm
The Zen of Rowing – directed by Kevin Caners (5 mins)
Lost Rivers - directed by Caroline Bâcle (72 mins)

March 23 – 1pm
Carpageddon – directed by Alex & Tyler Mifflin a.k.a. The Water Bros. (28 mins)
Reefer Madness – directed by Alex & Tyler Mifflin a.k.a. The Water Bros. (23.5 mins)

March 23 – 3pm
A Sea Turtle Story - directed by Kathy Shultz (10 mins)
A Sea Change - directed by Barbara Ettinger (86 mins)

March 23 – 7pm
Qalupalik - directed by Ame Papatsie (5.5 mins)
Water Journey - directed by Jeff Bear and Marianne Jones (94 mins)

March 24 – 1pm
The Whale Story - directed by Tess Martin (3.5 mins)
Meltdown – directed by Carrie Mombourquette (1.5 mins)
The Whale – directed by Suzanne Chisholm and Michael Parfit; Narrated by Ryan Reynolds (85 mins)

March 24 – 4pm
Dolime Dilemma – directed by Kristy Neville (12 mins)
Seeking the Current – directed by Nicolas Boisclair, Alexis de Gheldere; Narrated by Roy Dupuis (86 mins)

March 24 – 7pm
Watershed – directed by Mark Decena and James Redford, Narrated Robert Redford (57 mins)
Overview – directed by Guy Reid, Christoph Ferstad and Steve Kennedy (19 mins)

http://ecologos.ca/

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