Documentaries are as thick on the ground these days as colons in the titles of nonfiction film. (Of the four docs opening this week that I’m aware of, three bear the mark of the scarlet appositive of second thoughts.) Great subjects deserve great documentaries, and the present-day commodification of water by multinational corporations and governments, rather than insuring its sustenance as a human right, is a great and pressing subject (and potentially depressing). Irena Salina’s 2008 expansive, fact-tastic doc on the topic, “Flow: For Love Of Water,” isn’t perfect, but it starts the conversation, and even finds hope in its conclusion about the goals and successes of activists. But is anyone really listening in a world where tap water is stripped of its nutritive ingredients by Pepsico and Coca-Cola and resold as bottled water? In a week when the EPA eliminated rules against the water supply of millions of Americans from rocket fuel? Hope, hope… like a drip from the pump. This is the submerged issue of the day. 83m. (Ray Pride)
“Flow: For The Love Of Water” opens Friday at Siskel.
Related Stories
Drink Full And Descend: A Review of Avatar — The Way Of Water There's cinematic genius in every overdetermined frame, every animated motion in shifting frame rates, the relentless photorealistic detail. The sensation is like being trapped in a bathysphere in an aquarium.
