What does it take to make a difference?
Water Warriors
Toronto Premiere | USA | 2017 | 22 min
A Fractured State
North American Premiere | AUSTRALIA | 2016 | 24 min
Emcee: Dr. Stephen Scharper,
Associate Professor, U of T
For more info on this event, see our WORLD WATER DAY page
Thursday, March 22, 2018, 6:00 - 8:30 pm
Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema (map)
Keynote Address by Jane Hammond
Jane Hammond is an Australian journalist with more than 25 years of experience. She specializes in stories of environmental justice, social affairs, science and politics. When not wearing her filmmaker's hat, Jane works as a community organizer and media coordinator for the Lock the Gate Alliance in Western Australia. Lock the Gate is a national Australian grassroots organisation made up of thousands of individuals and over 250 local groups who are concerned about unsafe or inappropriate mining. The mission of the Lock the Gate Alliance is to protect Australia’s agricultural, environmental, and cultural resources from inappropriate mining and to educate and empower all Australians to demand sustainable solutions to food and energy production. Jane lives in the Fremantle area of Western Australia with her husband Shane and two of their three adult children.
Panellists
Jane Hammond
Filmmaker and Community Organizer
Peter Tabuns
MPP, Toronto-Danforth
Tara Seucharan
Representative, Council of Canadians—Toronto Chapter
Water Warriors
Toronto Premiere | USA | 2017 | 22 min
Filmmaker: Michael Premo
WATER WARRIORS is the story of a community’s successful fight to protect their water from the oil and natural gas industry. In 2013, Texas-based SWN Resources arrived in New Brunswick, Canada to explore for natural gas. The region is known for its forestry, farming and fishing industries, which are both commercial and small-scale subsistence operations that rural communities depend on. In response, a multicultural group of unlikely warriors–including members of the Mi’kmaq Elsipogtog First Nation, French-speaking Acadians and white, English-speaking families–set up a series of road blockades, sometimes on fire, preventing exploration. After months of resistance, their efforts not only halted drilling; they elected a new government and won an indefinite moratorium on fracking in the province.
A Fractured State
North American Premiere | AUSTRALIA | 2016 | 24 min
Filmmaker: Jane Hammond
In Western Australia a high stakes battle is underway to protect land, water and health from the unconventional gas industry and fracking. With more than 50 million hectares of the state under licence or application from oil and gas companies, communities from the Kimberley to the south west are standing up against the might of the fracking industry and its government backers. Communities have learnt from the mistakes of the US and fighting to protect the water resources of one of the driest places on the planet. But time is running out.
