The Watershed Project
Film Synopses
Congo: The Grand Inga Project
(USA, Congo | 2013 | 82 min | Dir: Steve Fisher)
Inga: the world’s biggest rapids, 1.6 million cubic feet of water per second, thundering down the final pitch of the mighty Congo River. Twice as steep and 100 times the average volume of those found on the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon.Explorers have tried to conquer these rapids for generations, but none have succeeded. ”It would be insanity in a successor,” wrote famed explorer Henry Morton Stanley in 1877, after his right-hand man drowned. ”There’s nothing shameful in portaging,” declared Col. John Blashford-Snell during his multinational team’s highly publicized attempt in 1974. And popular French TV Adventurer Philippe De Dieuleveult never had the chance to comment, as the entire team who attempted the rapids with him, mysteriously vanished in 1985. The Inga rapids have remained the “the choking stone of navigation” up or down the Congo River for centuries!
After years of planning and research, kayaking icon Steve Fisher first visited the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2007, to initiatehisattempt.He and his logistical team of Pete Meredith and Boston Ndoole, quickly encountered the insurmountable obstacles that come with the maddening politics of a broken country, and it wasn’t until 2011 that the team finally got the go-ahead to mount their expedition. For this mission, Fisher handpicked an elite team of top paddlers including Tyler Bradt of Missoula, Montana, Benny Marr of Ottawa, Canada, and Rush Sturges from Forks of Salmon, California.
Congo: The Grand Inga Projectis the riveting 80-minute documentary that follows the expedition as the team struggles to navigate complicated logistical challenges, and then the historic first descent of a 50-mile section of the Congo River. No effort is spared in telling the story of what really happens when you decide to take on the deadliest rapids on earth. “This is a river like no other,” recalls Fisher, who’s logged dozens of major first descents. “We may have survived, but somehow we feel more humbled than proud.”
DamNation
(USA | 2014 | 87 min | Dir: Ben Knight,Travis Rummel)
This powerful film odyssey across America explores the sea change in attitude from pride in big dams as engineering wonders to the growing awarenessthat our own future is bound to the life and health of our rivers. Dam removal hasmoved beyond the fictional Monkey Wrench Gang to go mainstream. Whereobsolete dams come down, rivers bound back to life, giving salmon and otherwild fish the right of return to primeval spawning grounds, after decades withoutaccess.
DamNation’s majestic cinematography and unexpected discoveriesmove through rivers and landscapes altered by dams, but also through a metamorphosisin values, from conquest of the natural world to knowing ourselvesas part of nature.
DamNation opens big, on a birth, with the stirring words of Franklin D. Rooseveltat the dedication of Hoover Dam, and on a death, as the engineer at ElwhaDampowers down the turbine on its last day. DamNation stints neither thehistory nor the science of dams, and above all conveys experiences known sofar to only a few, including the awe of watching a 30-pound salmon hurtling20 feet into the air in a vain attempt to reach the spawning grounds that liebarricaded upriver. We witness the seismic power of a dam breaking apartand, once the river breaks free, theelation in a watching wild salmon — after acentury of denied access — swimming their way home.
Dressing the Princess
(SA | 2013 | 16 min | Dir: Carlos Francisco)
Legend has it that a Khoisan princess living on the Cape Flats in the early days of European exploration was violated by sailors. She fled to the mountain fortress of Elephant's Eye cave and wept so much that her tears formed Princess Vlei. Today, local communities are fighting against inappropriate commercial development that threatens the natural beauty, recreational value and spiritual heritage of this traditional commonage.A STEPS/SANBI Production
Last Call at the Oasis
(USA | 2011 | 100 min | Dir: Jessica Yu)
Water. It’s the Earth’s most valuable resource. Our cities are powered by it, agriculture and other industries depend on it, and all living things need it to survive. But instead of treating it with care, we’ve allowed it to become polluted with toxic chemicals and agricultural and industrial waste. And it’s very possible that in the near future, there won’t be enough to sustain life on the planet.
With Academy Award®-winning director Jessica Yu (Breathing Lessons: The Life and Work of Mark O’Brien) and Academy Award® nominated producer Elise Pearlstein (Food, Inc.), Last Call at the Oasis sheds light on the vital role water plays in our lives, exposes the defects in the current system, shows communities already struggling with its ill-effects and introduces us to individuals who are championing revolutionary solutions. It also presents a convincing argument for why the global water crisis will be the central issue facing our world this century.
Among other topics, the film examines serious water quality issues. We follow famed environmental advocate Erin Brockovich as she visits Midland, Texas, where the bright green water found in a community’s domestic wells has dangerously high levels of hexavalent chromium, the same dangerous toxin she helped to uncover in Hinkley, California in the mid-90s. We also meet Tyrone Hayes, a scientist at UC Berkeley, who has discovered that the herbicide Atrazine, the most common contaminant of drinking water and groundwater, can at low levels cause some male frogs to produce enough estrogen to actually turn them into females
Despite predictions that this century’s wars will be fought over water access, Last Call at the Oasis ends on a hopeful note with a visit with Friends of the Earth Middle East, the only regional organization that brings together Israelis, Palestinians and Jordanians committed to working cooperatively to tackle the challenges of providing clean water for all three nations that depend on the Jordan River. It underscores the message that the global water crisis affects all of us and that it’s going to take all of us, working together, to fix it.
Limpopo short
(SA | 2014 | 4 min | Francois Odendaal Productions)
Shared by four southern African countries, the Limpopo River is important to the livelihoods of all who live on its banks, but as much as it is a source of life, it can just as easily bring death. In early 2013 heavy rains flooded the river basin, shattering lives and leaving Mozambique and its people devastated. This short film aims to highlight the importance of cooperation by countries sharing the river, and the need for improved early warning systems in the Limpopo river basins.
River of Eden
(USA | 2014 | 6 min | Dir: Pete McBride)
The Upper Navua Conservation area in Fiji is also known as The River of Eden or Tropical Grand Canyon.It is one of the only protected rivers in the South Pacific and its conservation was driven by a small rafting company and nine local families. A beautiful and inspirational short film.
Running Dry
(USA | 2005 | 81 min | Dir: Jim Thebaut)
Narrated by actress Jane Seymour, Running Dry is a visually dramatic and hard-hitting documentary that raises awareness regarding the worsening humanitarian water crisis around the globe, including in South Africa. The film demonstrates that the looming world water emergency is huge but not insurmountable. A few simple changes can make a great deal of difference.
The Water Tower
(USA | 2014 | 28 min | Dir: Pete McBride)
In Central Kenya, northeast of the Rift Valley, there is a tower. It is a monumental graniteswell with a crumbling pinnacle that stretches 17,058 feet into the sky. Mt. Kenya, the second tallest peak in Africa, is home to Ngai, the local water god that is said to create the rains. As a result, Ngai and the mountain provide 70% of the nation's water supply, fed by glaciers and annual storms that eddy around this looming rock island. It is truly Kenya’s Water Tower. Pete McBride climbed it's false summit with his family when was 9. Returning in 2012 with a group of climbers, he noticed something frightening. It wasn't the same mountain he climbed as a boy.
Water – The Sacred Relationship
(Canada | 2014 | 53 min | Dir: Greg Miller)
Water – The Sacred Relationship, is the result of a three year research project by Canadian Aboriginal non-profit agency Native Counselling Services of Alberta.Guided by a circle of Cree Elders and led by a team of Aboriginal and Western scientists,this insightful filmexplores how reconciling the relationship between indigenous people and the modern world can lead to healthier water, while also healing the rift between ancientworldviews and Western science.
Who Owns Water?
(USA | 2014 | 51 min | Dir: David Hanson, Michael Hanson, Andrew Kornylak)
“Water wars. Let's have a whiskey and I'll tell you something different."
It's a conflict once unthinkable in the deep green South of the USA. Three states are locked in battle over the diminishing fresh water that saw Atlanta go from a small town to the fastest growing city in the country.
Who’s in control? It depends on who you talk to.
In this stunningly-shot, award-winning documentary film, brothers Michael and David Hanson return to the source of their childhood river and paddle it to the Gulf of Mexico to take you deep into the water wars.
Everything comes down to one question: Who Owns Water?
Zambezi short
(SA | 2014 | 4 min | Francois Odendaal Productions)
What would you do if you woke up one morning and discovered that the borders have changed?
In the northern reaches of Southern Africa’s biggest river basin, the Zambezi River Basin, lies the Songwe River, which forms the border between Tanzania and Malawi.This meandering river shifts its course with the annual floods, leaving some residents without land and the international border having shifted. This short film demonstrates that regional cooperation is not an optional extra, but a matter of survival when managing trans-boundary waters in the Zambezi River Basin, which is shared by eight SADC countries.