THE SIXTH ANNUAL
in partnership with Toronto and Region Conservation
PROGRAMME MARCH 29 - APRIL 2, 2017
HOT DOCS TED ROGERS CINEMA
Welcome to the Sixth Annual
Water Docs Film Festival
Water ripples in a deep place in all of us. To stir that rippling opens the possibility for action. Documentary film, the storytelling method of our time, has the power to move people this way. This is why Water Docs was born. Experience has taught us that powerful stories can shape attitudes and motivate action. The Water Docs Film Festival is about experiential learning, connecting people to the emotions most likely to drive them to make positive change – to understand, honour and protect the water that is the source of life. Water Docs is organized and run by The Ecologos Institute, which has delivered environmental education and action programs for nearly two decades. On September 24, we will launch our latest initiative: the Ontario150 Great Lakes Water Walk (GLWW), reconnecting people with our greatest bodies of freshwater and seeking reconciliation with the First Peoples, who are the lakes’ spiritual protectors. It also behooves us to acknowledge that Toronto itself sits on the traditional territory of the Mississaugas of the New Credit First Nations. As with the Water Docs Film Festival, our hope is that the GLWW will raise awareness and bring about positive change, creating a harmonious and supportive relationship between Indigenous and Non-Indigenous peoples for the next 150 years of our history. And, as with all our programs, we always ask ourselves: How do we touch people deeply enough to inspire action to make a true difference? Over the next five days, it will be through the documentary storytelling and experiential learning that are the heart and soul of the Water Docs Film Festival. Enjoy your experience.
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@waterdocs
waterdocs
waterdocs.ca
in partnership with Toronto and Region Conservation
Ecologos thanks the following supporters of their 2017 Water Docs programs
SUPPORTERS The Estate of Ruth Eileen Day Robert and Sandra Rafos
Howard Barrie David & Lin Burman Norm Chatelier David & Bonnie Collacutt Phil & Margaret Devor Derek Day & Diane Donley Ian W. Gilmour & Brenda Darling Duncan Holmes Allenna Leonard Barbara McGregor
Our Lady’s Missionaries The Brayley Family Fund at the Toronto Foundation The Patagonia Environmental Grants Fund of Tides Foundation David & Anne Patterson John & Thea Patterson The Marjorie J. Sharpe Fund at the Toronto Foundation The Ursuline Sisters
PARTNERS
CO-PRESENTERS & COMMUNITY PARTNERS 18TH ANNUAL ENVIRONMENTAL FILM FESTIVAL
OCTOBER 18 – 22, 2017
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A PERSONAL MESSAGE FROM THE PRIME MINISTER
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A PERSONAL MESSAGE FROM THE LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR
March 29–April 2, 2017 It is with great pleasure that I send my warm greetings to all taking part in the 2017 Water Docs Film Festival. In particular, I wish to welcome participating filmmakers from across Canada and from around the world, as well as visitors to our provincial capital of Toronto. I often call myself Ontario’s Storyteller-in-Chief. During my travels throughout this province, it has been a privilege to hear many stories of love for our Great Lakes and for the natural beauty of our land. It has been amazing to learn of the thousands of people who contribute their time, talent, and energy to preserving our waterways for this and future generations—both at home and abroad. The Water Docs Film Festival reveals much related to these efforts. Audiences will, through the screen, experience filmmakers’ water-related stories, having the chance to learn more about ecological pressures faced by one of our most precious resources. May these films enrich our understanding of water, and even perhaps move us to action! By actively listening to our stories we become more aware of and better understand each other and, in turn, create the communities and environments of which we can be proud. In this 150th anniversary year of Canadian Confederation, may this exercise of thoughtful and peaceful engagement be our gift to the future and a legacy to the world at large.
Elizabeth Dowdeswell
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A PERSONAL MESSAGE FROM THE PREMIER
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A PERSONAL MESSAGE FROM THE MAYOR
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2017 WATER DOCS FILM FESTIVAL DATE
TIME
FEATURE
March 29
6:30 pm
RiverBlue
March 30
6:30 pm
The Peel Project
SHORTS
Xelaltxw Downstream Mining the Mother Lode
March 30
9:30 pm
March 31
6:00 pm
River
Sea of Life
In Season Conserving Water in Urban Areas
April 1
3:00 pm
Standing On Water
April 1
6:00 pm
Putuparri and the Rainmakers
April 2
3:00 pm
Snowglobe Hand.Line.Cod.
The Rainmakers of Nganyi
Skeleton Sea: The Tides of Tomorrow Conserving Water in Urban Areas The Diver En la Orilla (At the Edge) The Storm Downstream The Canoe
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SCHEDULE-AT-A-GLANCE EVENT Fashion’s Deep Water Impacts
LOCATION OISE Auditorium
GUEST SPEAKERS Adria Vasil, Emcee & Panel Moderator Lisa Mazzotta & Roger Williams, Filmmakers Kelly Drennan, Fashion Takes Action Kelly Okamura, gooderGoods Elizabeth Hendricks, WWF Canada
Water Inspires Art Opening Night
Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema
Michael Charbon, Emcee Calder Cheverie & Anthony Wallace, Filmmakers Aurora Darwin, Artist Jason LaChappelle, CPAWS Yukon Ian Gilmour, Ecologos Board Chair
Dancing With Water Opening Night Reception
CSI Annex Lounge
Water’s Rising Tides of Change 2017 Awards Night
Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema
Michael Charbon, Emcee Julia Barnes & Sydney Boniface, Filmmakers Ian Gilmour, Ecologos Board Chair
The Joy of Water
Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema
Rick Miller, Emcee
Traditional Water Wisdom
Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema
Rick Miller, Emcee
Water Drops Shorts Program
Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema
Rick Miller, Emcee
Peter Alsted, Filmmaker
Nicole Ma, Filmmaker
Goh Iromoto, Filmmaker
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WATER DOCS
FILM SYNOPSES Wednesday, March 29, 6:30 pm FASHION’S DEEP WATER IMPACTS RIVERBLUE
Toronto Premiere
2016, 90 min, CANADA Filmmakers: David McIlvride, Roger Williams and Lisa Mazzotta Internationally renowned river advocate, Mark Angelo, journeys through some of the world’s most pristine waterways, to some of its most polluted, in an unprecedented global adventure that reveals the dark side of the fashion industry. Through harsh chemical manufacturing processes and the irresponsible disposal of toxic chemical waste, the manufacturing of our clothing is destroying rivers globally. Shot in 5K with images both stunning and shocking, RiverBlue is a call to action to manufacture our clothing in a more sustainable way.
MC: Adria Vasil Adria Vasil is an environmental journalist and the bestselling author of the Ecoholic book series, as well as the Ecoholic column in NOW Magazine. Followed by a post-screening panel discussion with filmmakers Roger Williams & Lisa Mazzotta, Kelly Drennan of Fashion Takes Action, Kelly Okamura of gooderGoods and Elizabeth Hendricks of WWF Canada
FREE SCREENING OPEN TO THE PUBLIC Co-presenters
Thursday, March 30, 6:30 pm WATER INSPIRES ART Prior to the film screening, a live set of some of the music inspired by the film’s journey performed by Anthony Wallace and friends.
THE PEEL PROJECT Toronto Premiere
2016 , 67 min, CANADA Filmmakers: Calder Cheverie & Anthony Wallace Six Artists paddle into the Arctic - A story of Art, Adventure and Canadian Wilderness. In jeopardy of development, The Peel Project highlights the landscape, culture and wildlife of the Peel River Watershed, one of the last intact river systems left in North America.
MINING THE MOTHER LODE Canadian Premiere
2016, 8.5 min, USA Filmmaker: H. Paul Moon
DOWNSTREAM World Premiere
2016 , 6 min, CANADA Filmmaker: Jeremy Williams
XELALTXW World Premiere
2016 , 7 min, CANADA Filmaker: Jeremy Williams
MC: Michael Charbon Michael Charbon is a Gemini Award winning media expert with substantive professional broadcast credits. Filmmakers Calder Cheverie & Anthony Wallace with Artist Aurora Darwin and CPAWS Yukon’s Jason LaChappelle will be in attendance for a post-screening discussion.
Community Partners
Co-presenters
Community Partners 10
9:30 PM DANCING WITH WATER OPENING NIGHT RECEPTION CSI ANNEX LOUNGE RIVER
Canadian Premiere
2015, 10 min, USA Filmmaker: Stephanie Maxwell Join us to celebrate the 2017 Water Docs Film Festival in the lounge at CSI Annex, 720 Bathurst Street, just a hop, skip and a jump down the street from the cinema. We will be displaying some of the artwork made by the six artists that are featured in the film The Peel Project. This special art was inspired by their canoe journey into the Yukon wilderness of this pristine watershed. We will also be premiering the short film River.
FREE - Your screening ticket is your admission to the party, so make sure to bring it with you.
Friday, March 31, 6:00 pm
CONSERVING WATER IN URBAN AREAS World Premiere 2016, 3 min, CANADA Filmmakers: Brent &Tammy Foster
MC: Michael Charbon Michael Charbon is a Gemini Award winning media expert with substantive professional broadcast credits. Filmmakers Julia Barnes and Sydney Boniface will be in attendance to receive their awards and for a post-screening discussion and a special Tribute to Rob Stewart
Co-presenters
18TH ANNUAL ENVIRONMENTAL FILM FESTIVAL
OCTOBER 18 – 22, 2017
Saturday, April 1, 3:00 pm THE JOY OF WATER STANDING ON WATER 2015, 65 min, DENMARK Filmmaker: Peter Alsted
WATER’S RISING TIDES OF CHANGE SEA OF LIFE Canadian Premiere
2016, 85 min, CANADA Filmmaker: Julia Barnes The ocean is the source of all life on earth and it’s in trouble. Sea of Life follows filmmaker Julia Barnes on an underwater adventure to discover the truth about the biggest threats facing the ocean and ultimately ourselves. Inspired by Rob Stewart’s Revolution, young filmmaker Julia Barnes finds herself on an epic journey around the world to save the ecosystems we depend on for survival. Sea of Life brings audiences from the beautiful world of coral reefs, into the heart of the environmental movement, meeting passionate scientists, activists, and explorers who reveal an enormous opportunity in the face of this challenge, to rise up and become the heroes the world needs.
Standing on Water is a story of overcoming your fears and following your passion. It’s the journey of how Casper Steinfath, despite his fear of water, became one of the best stand up paddle surfers in the world as the only person from Denmark. It’s a story of how far passion can take you in life, even if you grow up in a small and isolated fishing village in the middle of nowhere. Strong family bonds, brotherhood, and the birth of a Danish surf community in what today is known as Cold Hawaii set the stage in this meditative portrait of a life lived by and for the ever-changing ocean.
SNOWGLOBE Canadian Premiere
2015, 13.5 min, FRANCE Filmaker: Laure Muller-Feuga
IN SEASON
HAND.LINE.COD.
2016, 9.5 min, CANADA
2016, 13.5 min, CANADA
Filmmaker: Sydney Boniface
Filmmaker: Justin Simms 11
MC: Rick Miller Rick Miller is a Dora and Gemini award-winning writer/director/actor/ musician/educator who has performed in five languages on five continents. Filmmaker Peter Alsted will join us via Skype for a post-screening discussion
Sunday, April 2, 3:00 pm WATER DROPS SHORTS PROGRAM SKELETON SEA: THE TIDES OF TOMORROW Canadian Premiere 2016, 25.5 min, NORWAY Filmmakers: Mauritz Brekke Solberg
Co-presenters
CONSERVING WATER IN URBAN AREAS
Community Partners
THE DIVER
Saturday, April 1, 6:00 pm TRADITIONAL WATER WISDOM PUTUPARRI AND THE RAINMAKERS 2015, 86 min, AUSTRALIA Filmmaker: Nicole Ma Putuparri and the Rainmakers is a universal story about the sacred connection between land and place that makes life meaningful.
THE RAINMAKERS OF NGANYI 2015, 8.5 min, SOUTH AFRICA Filmmaker: Steve McDonald
MC: Rick Miller Rick Miller is a Dora and Gemini award-winning writer/ director/actor/musician/ educator who has performed in five languages on five continents. Following the screening, filmmaker Nicole Ma will join us via Skype for an audience Q&A session
Co-presenters
Community Partners 12
2016, 3 min, CANADA World Premiere Filmmakers: Brent & Tammy Foster
2016, 16 min, MEXICO Filmmaker: Esteban Arrangoiz
EN LA ORILLA (AT THE EDGE) 2014, 12.5 min, USA Filmmakers: Liza Hoos & Xavier Basurto
THE STORM DOWNSTREAM 2015, 13 min, USA Canadian Premiere. Filmmaker: Jesseca Simmons
THE CANOE 2017, 27 min, CANADA Filmmaker: Goh Iromoto
MC: Rick Miller Rick Miller is a Dora and Gemini award-winning writer/ director/actor/musician/ educator who has performed in five languages on five continents. Filmmaker Goh Iromoto will be in attendance for a post-screening discussion about his film The Canoe
Co-presenters
Community Partners
WATER DOCS 2017 AUDIENCE SURVEY FILL OUT THIS SURVEY REMOVE IT FROM THE PROGRAMME AND DROP IT IN OUR SURVEY BOX FOR A CHANCE TO
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PATAGONIA® RAINCOATS! TEAR ALONG DOTTED LINE
Please help us grow the festival, based on understanding our audience. Tear this out and give it to a volunteer, or go to this URL: www.surveymonkey.com/r/WaterDocs2017 Your postal code: ___________ Your generation: q iGen (1996 or later) q Millennial (1977-1995) q Gen X (1965-1976) q Baby Boomers (1946-1964) q Mature (1945 and before) Is this your first time at Water Docs? q Yes q No
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Built on the Dedication of Our Volunteers The remarkable 2017 Water Docs Film Festival you are enjoying is only the tip of the iceberg. It’s a beautiful tip, to be sure, full of sparkling life, but it is held aloft by the much larger supporting mass that goes unseen beneath the surface. The many volunteers who not only make this festival possible, but also a resounding success year after year, are this foundation. Each is a volunteer in the purest sense of the word, giving selflessly of their time without recompense other than the pleasure of seeing a job well done. Thank you, each and every one. Whether you are able to give a few hours of your time, or dozens, or even hundreds, your work is what gives our silver screen so much magic. And the good that the festival does flows directly from your own good deeds and dedication to the cause of water stewardship and activism. I would especially like to recognize the 2017 Water Docs Film Festival Volunteer Programming Committee, headed up by Lead Programmer Melanie Howe: Anneleen Naudts, Nanette Sanson, Ronnie Seagren and Sanjay Talreja – thank you all so very much. Your impeccable taste, hard work and sense of mission have turned a series of film screenings into a true festival – one that will have legs for many years to come.
Stan Gibson Executive Director 14
A Walk for Water, Reconciliation and Hope
In an era where funding is being slashed to programs protecting the Great Lakes, never has positive action been so necessary. At a time when our First Peoples face appalling conditions, with a lack of basic sanitation and clean water on reserves across Canada, never has reconciliation been so important. We must take a stand and support hope. Early on September 24, 2017, Anishinaabek Elder Josephine Mandamin will lead many thousands of people on the Ontario150 Great Lakes Water Walk as a way to raise awareness, bring healing and unite cultures. Indigenous elders will meet large gatherings of people at the mouths of the Credit River in the west and the Rouge River in the east for a blessing of the waters and then begin traversing Toronto’s Lake Ontario waterfront. After stopping briefly at the mouths of both the Humber and Don rivers to perform another blessing, the groups will then meet at Ontario Place, where Grandmother Josephine will lead a blessing of the Great Lakes, joined by the leaders of the cultural and faith traditions, governments, businesses, youth, working people and volunteer organizations of the Greater Toronto Area. As the co-ordinating partner in the coalition organizing the walk, we at Ecologos are asking for your help. Your donation will enable us to take the first steps toward establishing an annual National Day of Walking for the Water, as well as beginning a right relationship between Indigenous and Non-Indigenous people for Canada’s next 150 years. Please contribute to this vision of hope for our future generations at Canada Helps (https://www.canadahelps.org/en/charities/the-ecologos-institute/). Thank you for your continued support, Stan Gibson Executive Director Ecologos 15
“He transformed fearsome monsters into beautifully awesome creatures, deserving of both respect and empathy.” —Paul Watson, founder of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society
Rob Stewart December 28, 1979 to January 31, 2017 This year’s Water Docs Film Festival is dedicated to the memory of our friend Rob Stewart – gifted filmmaker, conservationist and fierce protector of sharks everywhere. His seminal documentaries Sharkwater and Revolution warned about the dangers of what we are doing to the environment and its inhabitants, and the dire consequences we all face. Sharkwater (2006) helped change people’s perceptions about sharks and became a rallying cry to stop the barbaric practice of “finning.” His 2012 documentary Revolution raised the spectre of worldwide ecological collapse if humankind does not change its ways. This past January, Rob, 37, died doing what he loved most – tragically drowning in a dive off the Florida Keys while filming the sequel to Sharkwater, Sharkwater: Extinction. Though now sadly gone, his example continues to make ripples, influencing new generations of dedicated filmmakers. A case in point is this year’s Best Film in the Ontario150 Film Challenge for Emerging Ontario Filmmakers, Sea of Life (screening March 31). Of her debut, an eye-opening examination of the manmade threats to our ocean ecosystems, director Julia Barnes says, “I never intended to become a filmmaker but when I watched [Rob’s] documentary Revolution, everything changed.” The drive for positive change is a powerful legacy. Thank you Rob. To help finish Rob’s film Sharkwater: www.sharkwater.com to make a donation.
Extinction,
please
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