As we countdown the days to the Our Blue World premier on Earth Day in New York, it’s hard to believe the film is ready to launch. I am excited, and also nervous, which is probably natural, as this is the culmination of 3 years work from visioning to execution and represents the next stage of a journey we began with Brave Blue World Studios in 2018.
Our North Star, was always: does this help people fall in love with water. If the answer was yes, we leant into it. It all starts with valuing water, everything flows from there. The film explores our intimate human relationship with water through the stories of protagonists who had transformational experiences. It portrays the planet as a small world where we all live and are connected through water. Bono and U2 suggested the song, Your Blue Room for the film, as a beautiful meditation and this influenced our thinking. You hope you learn something on any journey, and we did. One was that a grass roots movement is happening, independently all over the world, where traditional knowledge and wisdom is being rediscovered and re-interpreted to help regenerate water systems and cool the planet. An epiphany discovery along the way, was the role managing water plays in regulating our climate. Paul Hawken put it succinctly:
Make rain, hydrate the the land, cool the planet.
It seems like only yesterday that we were on our first shoot in Peru, capturing the story of the restoration of the Amunas. These pre-inca water canal systems on the slopes of the Andes mountains help water seep into the ground and sustain the rivers that flow towards Lima, the worlds driest mega-city. Since then, we captured stories of the Buddhist new year celebrations with water in Siem Reap, the ingenious water people of the Khmer civilisation of Angkor Wat, the success of the Maori people in achieving recognition of personhood of Whanganui River, at the UN Water Summit in New York, in the snowy sub-artic landscape of Quebec with the Cree people, walking the Vechte with Li An, re-visiting Biopshere II with Mark Nelson and supporting Mark and artist Meridel Rubenstein on the Marsh Arabs wetlands Eden Again project.
What’s next? We will be taking the film on the road, to leading film festivals, Olympics Paris 2024, COP29 Azerbaijan, World Economic Forum in DAVOS. We want to democratise participation and support a grass roots movement. Elements of this we are working on, include:
1. A water photography competition, in partnership with EPOTY.org, where people can tell their #MyWaterStory
2. Water Walks and Citizen Science programs with Li An Phoa, Drinkable Rivers,
3. Educational resources for schools with Project WET: Water Education Today
4. Touring Water Art exhibitions with Jane Withers and MK&G Hamburg, with the exhibition Water Pressure.
5. Water Runs with Mina Guli
Special thanks to all of our partners, who shared the vision and helped to bring these stories to life with us!
