Still from Water On The Table
Still from Water On The Table
 
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Water on the Table

by Liz Marshall
Is water a commercial good like running shoes or Coca-Cola? Or, is water a human right like air?
2010  ·  1h19m  ·  Canada
English
About the Film
Water On The Table is a character-driven, social-issue documentary by Liz Marshall that explores Canada’s relationship to its freshwater, arguably its most precious natural resource. The film asks the question: is water a commercial good like running shoes or Coca-Cola? Or, is water a human right like air? Water On The Table features Maude Barlow, who is considered an “international water-warrior” for her crusade to have water declared a human right.  ”Water must be declared a public trust and a human right that belongs to the people, the ecosystem and the future, and preserved for all time and practice in law. Clean water must be delivered as a public service, not a profitable commodity.” The film intimately captures the public face of Maude Barlow as well as the unscripted woman behind the scenes. The camera shadows her life on the road in Canada and the United States over the course of a year as she leads an unrelenting schedule. From 2008 – 2009 Barlow served as the U.N. Senior Advisor on Water to Father Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann, President of the 63rd Session of the United Nations. But, Water On The Table is more than a portrait of an activist …  It is a poetic-essay that presents several dramatic and artfully crafted debates. Barlow’s opponents are giants in the world of policy and economics and they argue that water is no different than any other resource, and that the best way to protect freshwater is to privatize it. It is proposed that Canada bulk-export its water to the United States, imminently. Cinematic haiku-style images by Steve Cosens linger on watersheds, wetlands, rivers, estuaries, waterfalls and lakes, bridging themes and questions and elevating water beyond the political framework explored. While many embrace Barlow as a leader in the global water justice movement, others regard her as an alarmist and agitator. She became involved with the issue of Canada’s water in the mid-1980s, when it became clear that it was to be included as a tradable good in the Canada -US Free Trade Agreement. She tried very hard to get it removed, then stayed involved in the fight for Canada’s water when it was included in NAFTA as not only a good, but also as an investment. Water has since defined her.
Upcoming Screenings

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Credits
Producer
Liz Marshall, Susan McGrath, Deborah Parks and Shelley Saywell
Writer
Liz Marshall
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About the Director

Liz Marshall

Liz Marshall

Liz Marshall is a Toronto born / based filmmaker who spent her childhood summers playing and imagining on the salty sorrel beaches of British Columbia. Liz is well versed in the craft of storytelling having worked as a writer, director, producer, videographer, cinematographer and photographer since 1994.  She is an award-winning auteur filmmaker who fuses cinematic storytelling with social and environmental justice issues.

Marshall has created documentaries shot all over the world:  In West and Central Africa, sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, South Asia, Central and South America, Europe and North America. She has focused on the right to water; censorship affecting writers and journalists, war-affected children, corporate-globalization, gender, sweatshop labour, refugees, HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa, popular culture, music, dance, and the written and spoken word.

Additionally, since 1995, Liz has enjoyed creating a body of art shorts, dance and music documentaries featuring the following celebrated artists:  Ani Difranco; Peggy Baker;  Ron Sexsmith and Don Kerr (Sexsmith & Kerr), Kyp Harness, Maryem Tollar, the Bourbon Tabernacle Choir, and Maza Meze.

Liz’s most recent film is Water On The Table (2010), featuring Maude Barlow’s crusade to have water declared a human right. It was nominated for the Donald Brittain Award for best social political documentary at the 2010 GEMINIS. It won the Best Canadian Feature Film Award at the 11th Annual Planet in Focus Environmental Film Festival. It is the 2010 Featured Canadian Film for Cinema Politica. And it received the 2011 Honourable Mention for Canada’s inaugural Environmental Media Association Awards (EMA’s).

Liz’s new film explores the moral significance of animals and shines new light on the subject of animal rights, within the context of our voracious consumer driven world. Through the heart and photographic lens of protagonist Jo-Anne McArthur the audience becomes intimately familiar with a small cast of animal characters. Scientists, doctors, activists and industry contribute to this epic conversation. Visit The Ghosts in Our Machine and join the conversation.
Photo credit: Cameron Maclennan

 
Other films by Liz Marshall

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