One Water (2008)

Water is essential to existence. Our bodies require it, as do our souls. It is the stuff of life and death, of sweat and tears, of need and wonder. Water bubbles through our imaginations, splashes through our forms of play and winds through the tributaries of human spirituality. Yet, as precious as we know water is, we have treated it as if it were infinite and cheap, which has led to an international crisis of epic proportions. One Water is a film that celebrates all the myriad ways water has touched human lives around the globe and explores our changing relationship to water as it grows ever more perilously scarce. The film leaves audiences with a series of provocative questions that culminate in one that will impact all of our futures: is water a human right or a commodity? Through a starkly emotional journey, the audience is invited to bear witness and encouraged to recognize this major global crisis as his or her very own. Filmed in 15 countries in both hemispheres, One Water churns together stirring visual sequences, compelling expert commentary, hypnotic local music and a score performed by the world-renowned Russian National Orchestra to immerse audiences in a direct and exhilarating experience of the meaning of water to humanity. The film highlights a world where water is exquisitely abundant in some places and dangerously lacking in others. Taps flowing with fresh, clean water are contrasted with toxic, polluted waterways that have turned the blue arteries of our planet murky. In India, the story of women and children who walk miles everyday to fetch water of questionable quality unfolds, revealing how the need for water feeds the vicious cycles of ill health and poverty. In Africa and Hungary, the tale of how water washes through daily spiritual life and moments of bliss is explored. Along the Ganges and the Colorado, the devastating drama of once sacred rivers suffering from extreme overuse comes to the fore. And from all over the world, come scenes of how water is inspiring innovation, compassion and hope.