Flow: For Love of Water

I wish everyone would see this movie. It has one simple thesis: there is a drive to privatize water. It supports its thesis with examples and details about those examples with interviews from experts, local people impacted, and even try to involve the companies that are attempting to privatize, with images, with maps,... It also provides easy solutions to the problem of providing water to the people who need it the most. There are a few arguments that are not supported (like the one on chemicals being absorbed through our skin and such,...) by one activist. The main CEOs of those companies refuse to respond to the allegations (because they know they cannot defend what they are doing, they avoid answering the questions). It is a pretty important documentary. One of the most important doc. I have seen in years. People who criticize this doc. on form are so lame. It is not supposed to be a Hollywood movie! I doubt they have the budgets to build ramps to allow smooth filming, for instance.

I saw a screening of FLOW at AFI Dallas, and it's one of the best documentaries (perhaps even THE best) I've ever seen.

The film covers a lot of ground. In fact, Salina probably could have made a series of films from her research. But instead she's managed to condense it down to a very watchable hour and a half. As she said in a Q&A after the screening, she realized during her research that although there is a wide range of water problems spread all across the globe, they are all connected, and it's important to look at the big picture. And from the viewer's perspective it's also interesting to see the connections between water problems in communities in India or Bolivia where privatization is putting poor communities in serious danger and communities in Michigan where Nestle is stealing water from the aquifers without paying a penny.

And, like any good documentary, this one doesn't stop just after presenting a problem; it also talks about how communities are fighting back, providing inspiration for viewers to take a stand as well. This film should be required viewing.

This film is as important, or maybe even more so, than any film you will see this year. While, most of us go to the theater to watch make-belief and whimsical movies, it's also nice once in a while to see films which touch us all as a human race. I see someone mentioned that this film is blatantly "one-sided" - well, it should be. Water is what we all need to LIVE, simple as that. When major corporations around the world start to get control of this natural resource: there is a problem. If a company can create a movie that can justify the other side of this issue, being the killing of young children through bad water in other places of the world then I'd love to see it. The movie was not "anti-capitalist" - it was "PRO-Human" and believe me, I'm no tree-hugger, in fact, I'm all business, all the time. But when business hurts innocent people...then there is a problem. This movie is about the growing issue of lack of water, an issue that will be growing in the next few years. A must see, in my humble opinion.

This documentary is a good example, of so many, how our monetary system really operates and its consequences it generates. How wealth gets transfered from the poor to the rich and how short term profit results in long term destruction. How a small group of rich people decide the faith and future of so many people in this world. This is also better known as corporatocracy. I would have liked to see more from the scientific side to support some of the arguments of the movie especially in terms of technology used right now and the total consequence of it. Also a bit more evidence in total would have given this documentary more momentum. But, I must say most of this movie is well researched and it speaks for itself. Points are very clear made.

Flow made me pretty angry at big businesses and the few corporations that have control over most of the water industry. It especially got me angry during the parts about the poor areas that don't get water flow just because the big businesses are greedy and think everybody should have to pay for something that is completely natural and comes from the Earth. It boggles my mind that water is not as easily obtainable as it should be for everyone. Water is a necessity in life and should be easily accessible.

Any film that can work me up like "Flow: For the Love of Water" should be considered a good movie. Flow is very informative and interesting, and everybody should watch it to learn about the corporations that control our water. Also, the film is beautifully made and well-put together.