whose water?
A film by Kate Levy
in collaboration with communities fighting for safe,
affordable water and sanitation across the United States
"Clear...Moving..Reveals What's usually invisible. A must see for anybody who drinks water."
-Rachel Haverlock, Freshwater Lab, University of Illinois
"Superb portrayal of the power structures that are destroying our water"
-Betsy Taylor, Author of Recovering the Commons: Democracy, Place and Global Justice
"How powerful it is to let people tell their own stories. How moving and motivating."
-Josie Pickens, Chief DEI Officer, City of Philadelphia
ABOUT THE FILM
Across the United States, nearly 2.2 million people lack safe or affordable water in their homes. Another 1.7 million lack proper sanitation systems. Whose Water?: The People’s Movement for Safe, Affordable Water and Sanitation in the United States travels to five drastically different regions of the country that are facing the impacts of this troubling trend–Lowndes County, Alabama; Flint, Detroit, and Highland Park, Michigan; Philadelphia; Navajo Nation; Martin County, Kentucky and Des Moines, Iowa. Through the stories of communities fighting for safe, affordable water and sanitation, the film examines the industrial and governmental systems that prevent so many people from accessing this basic necessity of life and offers concrete solutions to address this unprecedented human rights crisis.
LOCATIONS
Michigan
Surrounded by 20% of the world’s fresh water, communities across Michigan are facing astronomical water bills, compounded by unprecedented storms and aging infrastructure. It’s primarily low income, majority black communities facing the brunt of these issues, and who are at the forefront of the fight for safe, affordable water.
Navajo Nation
In the1864 Treaty with the US government, the Diné people were stripped of their ability to control minerals on their land. Since then, industrial and governmental coal and uranium mining operations have drained their water aquifer and contaminated individual wells. While 30% of Navajo Nation residents lack access to potable water, Navajo leaders, scientists and activists are working to hold the federal government accountable.
Lowndes County, Alabama
Inadequate governmental investment in rural infrastructure has left many residents of Lowndes County, Alabama, which is 70% black, with overpriced, malfunctioning septic systems, compounded by predatory home lending. These conditions have led to a major hookworm outbreak in the county. But after years of organizing, community
Martin County, Kentucky
Martin County, Kentucky was once the center of the US coal industry, reaping billions of dollars in profits for mining companies, and causing billions more in damage to Appalaichan communities. As coal mining rendered most individual wells unusable, poorly constructed infrastructure was built, but funding to maintain this infrastructure never materialized. Compounding this issue is water contamination, as elected officials, heavily influenced by coal mining companies have looked the other way. As prices for contaminated water in Appalachia has increased exponentially, an unlikely coalition of former coal miners, environmental activists and lawyers are working to hold elected officials accountable and regain control of their water system.
Des Moines, Iowa
Iowa is the largest corn and soybean producer in the United States, a commodity that has become increasingly precious as an alternative to fossil fuels. In order to maximize production, industrial agricultural operations drain water from their fields, polluting rivers and streams with nitrates, costing water utilities millions of dollars to treat drinking water. The farm and soybean industry are not required to clean up their farm runoff under the Clean Water Act, thus the Des Moines water department filed an unprecedented lawsuit in an attempt to force regulation over these enormous farming operations.
Philadelphia
As water bills become more unaffordable for Philadelphians, specifically African Americans, arrears, which are added to property taxes began to pile up, resulting in the loss of many Black-owned family homes. Community Legal Services of Philadelphia began to advocate for a water affordability plan and arrearage forgiveness program, tying water bills to a percentage of a household’s income.
testimonials and reviews
"I have used Whose Water is an ideal teaching tool. The film has woven together compelling stories from a diverse set of people. As a teacher, I greatly appreciate how Whose Water foregrounds the voices of the activists and impacted people themselves, as opposed to featuring only the voices of “experts.” I also like the geographic, ethnic, and issue diversity in the film. It functions as a terrific overview of water problems caused by institutional racism, negligent government officials, and the greed of major corporations. The film's use of contemporary interviews and archival footage of her protagonists teaches my young students that justice is surely a long-term enterprise."
--Susan Gzesh
Instructional Professor of Social Sciences, University of Chicago
"Highly Recommended...Each issue is discussed in detail, providing historical backgrounds, infrastructure challenges, residential stories, health cases and lawsuits, the efforts of activists and human rights organizations, and the complex relationships among communities, industries, and stakeholders. The film's comprehensive exploration of water quality and accessibility challenges across various US regions makes it an excellent tool for educators to foster classroom discussions about the essential human right to safe and affordable drinking water, environmental sustainability, and social justice."
--Educational Media Reviews Online
Whose Water is an emotionally resonant and thoroughly researched documentary. The film is true to its title – we are forced to reckon with the reality that water is a contested resource within the context of profit-driven infrastructure, environmental racism, and government neglect. Whose Water is a must-see film for anyone invested in human rights and environmental equity. The film counters dominant narratives around personal responsibility, exposing how structural forces shape unequal access to water. Importantly, Whose Water also highlights the power of frontline communities and the role of legislative advocacy in the ongoing struggle for water justice. This film informs AND inspires action!"
--Cedric Taylor, Associate Professor, School of Politics, Society, Justice, and Public Service, Central Michigan University
"Whose Water reframes water crises through the insight of Iocal communities—those who do not pray to broken governments or billionaires to fix the crisis. It is the specifics of these community’s deep knowledge and strategic activism that is so powerful. The voices of the people who are dying of thirst teach the rest of us who are not yet. The film clearly connects the big systemic dots without losing hope. Whose Water is brilliant, energizing, and it awakens a sense of where power actually lies if we can collectivize it."
--Mary Poole
Professor of History, Prescott College
"Mixing the first-person accounts with easy-to-digest graphics, plus staggering statistics pepper throughout, Whose Water? uses its 65 minute run time to present a detailed story around each of the numerous clean water issues it showcases. Whose Water? is a well crafted, structured documentary that will open the eyes of viewers, and creates a compelling and powerful enough case to even spark some to want to take action. This educational documentary shoulders a journalistic responsibility that is required for democratic societies to function and for that alone it's worth a place as a library resource, or as part of a library collection.-
--Jason Karpf
Video Librarian
PEOPLE IN THE FILM
Catarina de Albuquerque
A Portugeuse Lawyer and human rights activist, Catarina de Albuquerque was the first United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to safe drinking water and sanitation
Robert Ballenger
Robert Ballenger is an attorney at Community Legal Services Philly, where he works to restore and maintain clients’ access to essential utilities.
Lila Cabil
Lila Cabil was a relentless activist for the human right to water, fighting racism inherent in the mass water shutoffs taking place across Michigan.
Roger Colton
Roger Colton is an Economist and expert on water affordability, and has helped cities around the country design and implement income-based water affordability programs.
Antonio Cosme
Antonio Cosme is an internationally renowned indigenous Xicana Boricua public intellectual, artist and ecologist. Active in the water rights movement, he has protested water shutoffs in his neighborhood by blocking water shutoff trucks. In 2014, he was arrested for spray-painting “Free the Water” on the defunct water tower in Highland Park Michigan.
Perry Charley
After his father died from uranium exposure from working in the mines, Perry Charley helped start the Abandoned Mine Lands Program of the US Bureau of Indian Affairs. He is now the Director of the Uranium Education Program at Dine College in Navajo Nation.
Mary Cromer
As a child, Mary Cromer’s family lost their well to underground coal mining in Appalaicha. When she graduated from law school she came back home to practice environmental law at the Appalachain Citizen’s Law Center, working with community groups to hold polluters accountable.
Percy Deal
Percy Deal grew up as Navajo lands were beginning to experience drought. As a child he heard stories from his parents of plentiful ground water that has since been depleted by Peabody Mining Company. Now he is an activist and crusader for environmental justice.
Sandra Dixon
Sandra Dixon was a lifelong Philadelphia resident who lived in her grandmother’s house from her early childhood until the time of her death. A grandmother and a mother, she was fighting to save her house from foreclosure, after her unaffordable water bills were added to her property taxes.
Gavonne Dixon
The son of Sandra Dixon, Gavonne grew up in Chicago. As he helped his mother to save the family home, he studied digital media and marketing. He still lives in Philadelphia, where he works as a Digital Media and marketing expert.
Catherine Coleman Flowers
An environmental health researcher and author, Catherine grew up in Lowndes County, Alabama, in a family of civil rights activists. When she moved back to Lowndes County as an adult, she began advocating for better sanitation systems for Black residents across the state. For her work, she won a MacArthur Genius Grant Award in 2020. Her book, Waste: One Woman’s Fight Against America’s Dirty Secret was also published in 2020.
Charity Hicks
Charity Hicks was a beloved Detroit community leader and commons advocate. She co-founded the People’s Water Board Coalition as a response to the city of Detroit’s campaign to shut-off of thousands of Detroit households for non-payment of water bills.
Nicole Hill
Nicole Hill is a lifelong Detroiter, and a mother of 6. In 2014, after experiencing a water shutoff, she began to speak out against this draconian practice. By doing so, she risked the removal of her children from her home. 8 years later, her and her children are water rights activists who have testified in front of legislative bodies across the state and organized hundreds to stand in opposition to Detroit’s mass water shutoff campaign.
Sharee Hardy
Sharee Hardy is a lifelong resident of Philadelphia, and one of the first Philadelphians to benefit from their pathbreaking income-based water affordability program.
Gary Hunt
Gary Hunt comes from a family of coal miners. In 2013, he was injured in the mines and is no longer able to work. Since then, he has been standing up for the right to clean water across Kentucky.
Alice Jennings
Alice Jennings is a legendary civil rights and environmental justice lawyer who has been fighting corporate pollution in low income communities of color since the 1980s. In 2014, she was lead counsel in a lawsuit that challenged the constitutionailty of mass-water shutoffs, resulting in the implementation of many protections for low-income Detroiters.
Marian Kramer
Marian Kramer has been in the front lines of the welfare rights and civil rights movement from its origin in the 1960s. She is a cofounder of the National Welfare Rights Union (NWRU) an organization of, by, and for the poor in America, and a key leader in the fight to keep the water on in homes of poor families across the US.
Barbi Ann Maynard
Barbi Ann Maynard is a lifelong resident of Martin County, Kentucky, who has lived with contaminated water since the 1990s. She is a Spokesperson for the White House National Infrastructure Campaign. In 2021, she was named by the Guardiaas one of the top 3 most powerful women in water.
Debra McCarty
Debra McCarty is the former director of the Philadelphia Water Department. Under her direction, the department implemented its pathbreaking income-based water affordability program, the first in the US.
Melissa Mays
A resident of Flint, MI, Melissa Mays was a key person in exposing the lead crisis in Flint’s water, when she co-organized an unprecedented citizen-led water testing campaign.
Mickey and Nina McCoy
Mickey and Nina McCoy are veteran teachers from Martin County, Kentucky. During the sludge spill of 2000, Nina and Mickey spearheaded community responses and citizen water testing. They are the co-founders of Martin County Concerned Citizens and active members of the Poor People’s Campaign
Claire McClinton
Claire McClinton was raised in Flint, Michigan in a family of union organizeres and is a retiree from General Motors, and active in the Auto Workers Local 659. Is a co- founder of Flint Democracy Defense League, and was pivotal in exposing the Flint Water Crisis to the world.
Lisa Morarend
Lisa Morarend was raised in Des Moines, Iowa, wondering why all the rivers were brown. She is currently a chemist at the Des Moines Water Works.
George and Patti Naylor
George and Patti have been farming their family farm since 1976, chosing to never raise GMO crops. In the 1980s, during the farm crisis, he was active in the Iowa Farm Unity Coalition. The Naylors are environmental activists, taking part in a lawsuit against the chemical company, Monsanto, in the 2000s.
David Osterberg
David Osterberg served as an Iowa State Representative from 1983-1995. He saw first hand the devastation of corporatization of farming during the Farm Crisis, and learned the influence chemical and agricultural companies have over laws governing water safety.
Almedia Rush
Ms. Rush is the sister of Pamela Rush. She grew up helping her family pick cotton for white landowners. Over the course of her life, she faced inadequate access to sanitation.
Pamela Rush
Born and raised in Lowndes County, Alabama, Pamela Rush and her daugher Beyoncia, brought the struggles of rural residents to access sanitation systems into national dialogue, testifying in front of US congress. An active member of the Poor People’s Campaign, Ms. Rush died in 2019 of COVID-19
Nayyirah Shariff
When residents of Flint started noticing problems with their water, Nayyirah Shariff became a leader in a protracted battle to get the State and Federal government to pay attention, co-organizing citizen water tests and steadfastly protesting the state’s decisions. They continue to push for accountability around the water crisis as the director of a grassroots organization Flint Rising.
Bill Stowe
As the director of Des Moines Water Works, Bill Stowe sued industrial agriculture operations for polluting Des Moines’ drinking water source, leading the first water department in the US to do so. In 2020, Bill died of pancreatic cancer.
Chili Yazzi
Chili Yazzie is a Navajo historian, poet and activist. After the shooting of a Navajo man by a white police officer, Chili was appointed to the Navajo Nation Human Rights Commission, working with the United Nations on indigenous issues. He continues to fight against coal, uranium and oil extraction on Diné land.
THE TEAM
Kate Levy:
Director, Writer, Cinematographer and Editor
Kate is a filmmaker and multimedia artist. Drawing on investigative and historical research and collaborations with community organizers, she has worked on projects related to water, education, police violence, immigration and environmental and economic justice.
Kate has exhibited her award-winning film, photography and installation work at film festivals, galleries and museums internationally. In 2015, her work with the ACLU of Michigan helped expose the Flint Water Crisis. She is a Patagonia Works Grant recipient (2017) and MacDowell fellow (2018). From 2019-2021, Kate served as the Co-Director of the Youth Documentary Workshop at Educational Video Center. From 2023-2024 she was the Stuart B. and Barbara Padnos Distinguished Artist-In-Residence at Grand Valley State University. She is currently an Assistant Professor of Practice at Drew University.
Maureen Taylor
Narrator, Writer and Producer
Maureen has served as State Chair of the Michigan Welfare Rights Organization since 1993, and was elected Treasurer of the National Welfare Rights Union in 1994. Since 2002, Michigan Welfare Rights has worked with thousands of concerned residents and organizations to stop water, gas, and electricity shut-offs. Along with other welfare rights members, she works with elected officials to draft policies and procedures that protect poor and low-income families. She has received many awards for her community organizing and leadership, and speaks at conferences and college campuses across the U.S. on poverty and safety net needs; changes in labor and the economy; civil rights history; and utility shutoffs and organizing. Maureen is a mother, educator and a member of local several boards and national community organizations.
Syvia Orduño
Writer and Producer
Sylvia is a resident of Detroit where she is involved in frontline community groups, including the People’s Water Board Coalition, Michigan Welfare Rights Organization and Water Is Life Alliance. In 2020, she was appointed to the first Michigan Advisory Council for Environmental Justice, which was created to ensure perspectives from impacted communities are included in state decision making; and to the EPA’s Great Lakes Advisory Board. Sylvia also serves as a Region 5 member of the EPA’s National Environmental Justice Advisory Council where she serves as the current Chair.
Patricia Jones
Writer and Producer
Patricia Jones is senior program lead for the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee’s Human Right to Water. Recognized worldwide for her leadership promoting the human right to water, Jones works with communities and international agencies to ensure access to safe, sufficient, affordable water for all. She has worked on projects for the United Nations, UNESCO, governments, and with international human rights institutions.
Alice Jennings
Writer and Producer
Alice is a partner in the Detroit law firm of Edwards & Jennings PC, and has devoted her career to litigating for civil rights and economic justice. Alice is active with many groups, including the Black Women Lawyers Association, of which she's a founding member and from which she was honored with the Harriet Tubman Trail Blazer Award in 2007; Wolverine Bar Association; National Bar Association; Michigan Trial Lawyers Association; American Trial Lawyers Association; Trial Lawyers for Public Justice; the James and Grace Lee Boggs Center to Nurture Community Leadership, of which she's a co-founder; and James and Grace Lee Boggs School, of which she's a board member.
Briana Parker
Writer, Producer and Outreach Coordinator
Briana is a volunteer organizer/ advocate at Michigan Welfare Rights Organization, a union for public recipients and low-income workers in the state of Michigan with the goal to fight to eliminate poverty in the United States. Briana also works for an environmental nonprofit organization and works to drive water policy, co-chairs the Diversity Racial Equity & Inclusion (DREI) committee and leads policy in Michigan.Briana holds a juris doctor from the University of Toledo College of Law, masters in community social work from Wayne State University, and a bachelor’s in social work from Marygrove College.
Nicole Hill
Outreach Coordinator
Nicole Hill is a lifelong Detroiter, and a mother of 6. In 2014, after experiencing a water shutoff, she began to speak out against this draconian practice. By doing so, she risked the removal of her children from her home. 8 years later, her and her children are water rights activists who have testified in front of legislative bodies across the state and organized hundreds to stand in opposition to Detroit’s mass water shutoff campaign.
Gavonne Dixon
Design Consultant
Gavonne grew up in Chicago. As he helped his mother to save the family home, he studied digital media and marketing. He still lives in Philadelphia, where he works as a Digital Media and marketing expert.
Adrian Randall
Assistant Editor and Archival Researcher
Adrian is a Honduran-American filmmaker. His feature documentary "A Human Year is Seven Earth Years" (84 min., 2022) won the top prize at the sixth edition of the Bienal de la Imagen en Movimento in Buenos Aires (2022) and received an Honorable Mention at the Bogotá Experimental Film Festival (2024.) It has also played at the Rockaway Film Festival and Mimesis Documentary Festival, among others.
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