Local filmmaker Liz Marshall, left, intentionally held back the cinematic debut of her documentary, Water on the Table, in the hope that it would be selected for Toronto’s annual Planet in Focus film festival, starting tomorrow. Better to be a big fish in a smaller pond, reasoned Marshall, than to get lost in the crowd at TIFF, Hot Docs or another major festival.
Given the high quality of her doc and its controversial subject – activist Maude Barlow’s fight to make water a human right – Marshall made a good strategic bet. Water on the Table is one of the marquee films showing at this year’s Planet in Focus, an 11-year old festival focused on videos and films about the environment.
Water has been on the table of Canadian public awareness since the trade of this natural resource surfaced as an issue in the 1988 Free Trade Agreement and again in the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement. So contentious was the issue that Canada, Mexico and the United States signed a joint position statement clarifying that “Unless water, in any form, has entered into commerce and become a good or product, it is not covered by the provisions of any trade agreement, including the NAFTA. And nothing in the NAFTA would oblige any NAFTA Party to either exploit its water for commercial use, or to begin exporting water in any form.”
A number of provinces would love nothing more than to start profiting from the export of their seemingly abundant water resources, which would trigger NAFTA clauses and truly put water on the trade table. Enter “water warrior” Maude Barlow, head of the Council of Canadians and chair of Washington-based Food and Water Watch.
Portrayed by environmental activists as a hero and by some industry leaders as a villain fit for horns and a tail, Barlow (being filmed above) and her various fights in the UN, the Alberta tar sands and Ontario’s Simcoe County (among others) provide Marshall with plenty of drama.
“Maude’s view of the world is vastly different from her opponents’,” states Marshall, “it’s a chasm and you wonder whether it will ever be bridged. I’ll admit she’s was a difficult character to pitch, to convince funders to believe in, not because of the controversy but because of the challenge of how to get behind the podium to the real woman. As Canadians, we’re very aware of Maude Barlow as a public figure, as an activist – she’s very media savvy, she’s incredibly articulate and she’s always out there, but who is she really?
“I knew we needed to represent her personal dimensions, for example her fears, what sustains her and what is sacred to her. That’s as far as I wanted to go on that level and my commissioning editor, Jane Jankovic (TVO’s The View From Here) really pushed for it. And that personal chapter comes at the middle of the film at a time when we need a break from all the facts.”
Marshall notes that what struck her most about Barlow, left, was how “truly authentic” the activist is: “What you see is what you get with Maude. She is completely committed and as confident and as fierce as she can be, she’s also truly humble. She doesn’t treat people differently according to their status in life, I saw this over and over again.”
Water on the Table travels to Alberta to witness the degradation caused by tar sands oil extraction and to Simcoe Country where a fight unfolds to protect one of the world’s purest sources of fresh water from becoming a landfill site. Marshall also follows Barlow to New York City to document her UN crusade: in July, the United Nations General Assembly voted overwhelmingly to make water a human right — 120 countries voted in favour of the resolution, none opposed it and 41 countries abstained, including Canada and the United States.
At this point in time, there’s no reason to think that environmental concerns will trump business interests in northern Alberta but in Ontario at least, Barlow and her brethren were able to convince politicians to deep six the Site 41 dump. It’s a win Marshall’s film badly needed in order to keep it out of the doldrums.
“It would have been a bummer without the Site 41 victory,” confirms Marshall. “The whole tone of the film would have changed. It was Maude’s instinct for me to cover that particular story and she was so right, she has uncanny instincts.”
Marshall’s own instincts, specifically her decision to make water a character in her film – beautifully composed and shot by cinematographer Steve Cosens (above, photo by Liz Marshall) – also pays cinematic dividends and helps the audience to appreciate the magnitude of what’s at stake.
“I wanted something that was reflective and poetic without being too arty,” says Marshall. “I hope it’s just arty enough.”
Indeed, Water on the Table scores on several fronts. And thanks to a distribution deal with Kinosmith, the film will soon be available in your local Blockbuster video outlet if you happen to miss its cinematic screenings this week.
WHERE/WHEN: Water on the Table screens as part of Planet in Focus at the Royal Ontario Museum, October 14 at 7 pm; Maude Barlow and Liz Marshall will both be in attendance. The film shows again at the Royal Cinema October 16 and 17 at 9pm and 2:30pm.
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