Water on the Table | |
---|---|
Written by | Liz Marshall |
Directed by | Liz Marshall |
Starring | Maude Barlow |
Theme music composer | Jennifer Moore, Mark Shannon |
Country of origin | Canada |
Original language | English |
Production | |
Producers | Liz Marshall, Susan McGrath |
Cinematography | Steve Cosens CSC, Liz Marshall |
Editor | Jeremiah Munce |
Original release | |
Release | March 24, 2010 |
Water on the Table is a Canadian documentary film directed, produced and written by filmmaker Liz Marshall. The film explores Canada's relationship to its freshwater resources and features Canadian activist Maude Barlow in her pursuit to protect water from privatization. Counterbalancing Barlow's views are those of policy and economic experts who assert that water is a resource and a commodity like any other.
Water on the Table follows Barlow over the course of a year, from 2008-2009, as she serves as the United Nations Senior Advisor on Water to Father Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann, the President of the United Nations General Assembly for its 63rd session. [1] During that period, the film also captures Barlow's involvement in the North Simcoe Landfill (Site 41) case, which takes place near the town of Barrie, Ontario. The pristine Alliston aquifer was threatened by county council plans to build a landfill site on top of it. [2] The film also follows Barlow on a fact-finding excursion to Fort McMurray, Alberta to learn about the effects of oil sands operations on water sources such as the Athabasca River and its impact on First Nations communities, namely the Dene and Cree peoples of Fort Chipewyan.
Barlow's contention that water "must be declared a public trust" [3] has its basis in her involvement with water rights issues going back to the Canada-US Free Trade Agreement in the 1980s, when water was under consideration as a tradable good under the terms of that agreement. She continued to be involved in the issue when water was carried over for consideration as both a tradable good and an investment source in the subsequent North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). [4] She continues to be involved in the issue in her capacity as the national chair of the Council of Canadians. She has also written numerous books on a range of social and political issues, most recently Blue Covenant: The Global Water Crisis and The Coming Battle for the Right to Water. [5]
Barlow's contention is debated in Water on the Table by the dissenting voices of policy and economic experts, including:
Water on the Table rounds out the water conflict debates with moments of cinematic tribute to water. The film features images of watersheds, wetlands, rivers, estuaries, waterfalls and lakes by Canadian cinematographer Steve Cosens.
The broadcast hour version of Water On The Table premiered March 24, 2010 on TVO's documentary series The View From Here . [10]
The North American Free Trade Agreement was an agreement signed by Canada, Mexico, and the United States that created a trilateral trade bloc in North America. The agreement came into force on January 1, 1994, and superseded the 1988 Canada–United States Free Trade Agreement between the United States and Canada. The NAFTA trade bloc formed one of the largest trade blocs in the world by gross domestic product.
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Jomo Kwame Sundaram is a Malaysian economist. He is a senior adviser at the Khazanah Research Institute, visiting fellow at the Initiative for Policy Dialogue, Columbia University, and an adjunct professor at the International Islamic University (IIUM).
Maude Victoria Barlow is a Canadian author and activist. She is a founding member and former board chair of the Council of Canadians, a citizens' advocacy organization with members and chapters across Canada. She is also the co-founder of the Blue Planet Project, which works internationally for the human right to water. Barlow chairs the board of Washington-based Food & Water Watch, serves on the Board of Advisors to the Global Alliance on the Rights of Nature, was a founding member of the San Francisco–based International Forum on Globalization, and was a Councillor with the Hamburg-based World Future Council. She is the Chancellor of Brescia University College at Western University. In 2008/2009, was Senior Advisor on Water to the 63rd President of the United Nations General Assembly.
Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann was an American-born Nicaraguan diplomat, politician and Catholic priest of the Maryknoll Missionary Society. As the President of the United Nations General Assembly from September 2008 to September 2009, he presided over the 63rd Session of the United Nations General Assembly. He was also nominated as Libyan Representative to the UN in March 2011. He died on 8 June 2017, having suffered a stroke several months earlier.
Tony Clarke is a Canadian activist.
Rodrigue Tremblay is a Canadian economist, humanist and political figure. He is an emeritus professor of economics at the Université de Montréal. He specializes in macroeconomics, international trade and finance, and public finance. He is the author of books in economics and politics. Tremblay's documents and archives are kept at the Center of Archives of the Quebec National Library and Archives, in Montreal, Quebec.
The Council of Canadians is a Canadian non-profit organization that advocates for clean water, fair trade, green energy, public health care, and democracy. The organization is headquartered in Ottawa, Ontario with regional offices in Halifax, Toronto, Edmonton and Vancouver and a network of local chapters across the country.
Robert Alan Pastor was a member of the National Security Council staff and a writer on foreign affairs.
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Liz Marshall is a Canadian filmmaker based in Toronto. Since the 1990s, she has directed and produced independent projects and been part of film and television teams, creating broadcast, theatrical, campaign and cross-platform documentaries shot around the world. Marshall's feature length documentaries largely focus on social justice and environmental themes through strong characters. She is known for The Ghosts in Our Machine and for Water on the Table, for which she also produced impact and engagement campaigns, and attended many global events as a public speaker. Water on the Table features water rights activist, author and public figure Maude Barlow. The Ghosts in Our Machine features animal rights activist, photojournalist and author Jo-Anne McArthur.
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The General debate of the sixty-third session of the United Nations General Assembly was the first debate of the 63rd Session of the United Nations General Assembly that ran from 23 – 29 September 2008. Leaders from a number of member states addressed the General Assembly.
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