Actress Isabelle Huppert and writer/director Mia Hansen-Løve talk about their film, "Things To Come," about a middle-aged philosophy teacher who's forced to reconsider her life; we talk with filmmakers Jeff Orlowski ("Chasing Coral") and Marina Zenovich ("Water & Power") about their climate change docs screening at the Sundance Film Festival.
Marina Zenovich tackles the California water crisis in her new doc
Who owns California's water? It's a simple question with no easy answer.
Roman Polanski tried to answer that in his 1974 film “Chinatown.” Now, documentary filmmaker Marina Zenovich is trying to do the same with her movie “Water and Power: A California Heist.”
She asks farmers, politicians and journalists why agricultural corporations can have so much access to clean water when some Californians are forced to use bottled water even to bathe — even as they live just feet from the state’s aqueduct.
The Frame’s John Horn spoke with Marina Zenovich about what inspired her to make the documentary, and how her film has become more urgent in the current political climate.
INTERVIEW HIGHLIGHTS
On how documentary filmmaker Alex Gibney inspired "Water & Power":
Alex Gibney came to me with the idea for this project. He knew that I was a Californian. I'm from the Central Valley. My dad was a politician in the California State Legislature and he knew that I would be interested in this.
The more I dug into the [California water crisis] I realized that this was "Chinatown" [as a] documentary. The water problem is something that everyone is aware of, but I don't think they pay attention to it until it affects them.
The film is an exposé of what is happening with the privatization of water in California. There's so much happening that we couldn't include everything in the film.
On how her film has become more topical in the current political climate
Given what's happened with the Presidential election, it has made this subject that much more urgent. The people have spoken. They have elected Donald Trump and we now need to band together, those of us who believe and see that there is climate change. That it is directly affecting our precious resources. We need to band together and see what we can do to fight government, fight corporations, to have safe water to drink.
On the type of films that interest her
I like to make films about scandals, whether it's something that's happened in someone's life, something that's happening in the world. A good story is a good story. As the world is changing not for the best, and as a parent, my interests are widening in scope.
This is a good story because this is about power and we're trying to expose things that people don't want us to see or know about. And we're trying to stop them from happening in the future.
On the kind of imagery used in the film:
I was quite taken when we were in the Central Valley, driving down a road that on one side was totally lush and green, and on the other side was the dustbowl. I was like, Wait! Pull over! We need to shoot this! It's kind of like the signature shot of our movie. Like, How did this happen?
"Water & Power: A California Heist" had its world premiere at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival and is now available on demand on the National Geographic Channel, and on iTunes, Amazon and GooglePlay.
Sundance 2017: 'Chasing Ice' director wants Trump to see his movie
Filmmaker Jeff Orlowski has been chasing down evidence of climate change with his camera for years now. His 2012 documentary “Chasing Ice" used time lapse photography to document melting glaciers over a three year period. For his new movie, "Chasing Coral" Orlowski has gone under water.
“Chasing Coral" tracks how spectacular oceanic habitats are destroyed by warming oceans. He tells The Frame, "it's a very visual story. You can see coral reefs going from a living, healthy state to dead just in a matter of a couple of months." The film will make it's world premiere at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival in a new program titled "New Climate."
Orlowski explained what a massive endeavor it was documenting the damage to coral reefs on a global scale and how he needed to go beyond his film crew to capture it all.
"At a certain point in this project, we realized that this phenomenon — the coral bleaching phenomenon where the coral turns white because the oceans simply are too hot — was happening all over, in places we couldn't get to ourselves. So we did a call out to a bunch of scuba divers through our network, and we've had hundreds of people contribute and show what's going on in their own backyards."
Orlowski believes that documentaries like his have the ability to influence the public conversation about climate change. That's something that seems especially important as the White House is about to change hands.
"From my perspective, I would love to get this film in front of President-elect Trump so he can see what is happening to the planet. He has publicly stated this is not a big issue. This goes against what all of the good science has to say. It's very hard to understand the very complicated nature of this issue but if we can show people an emotional story. If we can show them visual imagery, visual evidence of what's happening that will hopefully have an impact."
After "Chasing Ice" and "Chasing Coral," what's next? Orlowski says, "I certainly hope we can solve climate change instead of continuing to document the demise of the planet. So maybe we need to chase Donald Trump for a little bit for him to see the imagery, see the story, see what's happening and for him to understand the severity – the significance– of this issue."
"Chasing Coral" premiers in January at the Sundance Film Festival.