Sam Bozzo, an American documentary filmmaker, is about to unleash his latest filmic efforts onto the world – Blue Gold: World Water Wars - will premiere at the Vancouver International Film Festival from September 25 to October 10, 2008.
Our reviewers declared the film – ‘the best water film on the market’ and said that ‘every person on the planet should see this film’. High praise indeed, considering we have seen our share of water films at GreenMuze. Nothing against the other water films, but Bozzo covers new ground and presents some of the more familiar water stories with a fresher focus and helps move his audience towards tangible solutions. Based on the best selling book Blue Gold by Maude Barlow and Tony Clarke, the film follows a similar narrative exploring the crisis and the politics of the water rights’ story and finishes with solutions.
Finally, a water film that kicks ass and makes the water crisis story fresh, interesting and accessible.
Bozzo put his film together over the last two years on a tight budget, armed with two cameras won in film competitions – one from Matt Damon as a Project Greenlight Top 10 Director and the other from Kevin Spacey as a TriggerStreet.com Film Festival winner. Bozzo enlisted some A-list help along the way for his film, including Mark Achbar (The Corporation) as an executive producer, Si Litvinoff (Clockwork Orange) as an executive producer and Malcolm McDowell (Clockwork Orange) as the narrator. Add in a slew of indepth interviews with the world’s leading water experts, great camera work and lots of eye-opening water facts and you have all the ingredients for a documentary-style blockbuster. Finally, a water film that kicks ass and makes the water crisis story fresh, interesting and accessible.
We caught up with Sam Bozzo before the Vancouver Film Festival and asked a few questions about why we need more films like Blue Gold:
Why is the water issue so important?
If you don't drink water for a week, you will die. As our population grows, as our water supply dwindles, and as our technological methods of transporting water increase, our water management methods turn from a community concern to a global crisis. Global Warming is an issue of ‘how’ we live; the water crisis is an issue of ‘if’ we live.
How does Blue Gold differ from other water films?
Although some films focus on the problem of water being privatized for profit, I believe I'm the only one to focus on the ‘power’ of water politically. My film explores militaries setting up bases around foreign aquifers and lakes, US Presidents secretly buying water-rich land for future use, mayors and presidents making deals with water companies for personal power, and even a kidnapping with the only ransom demand being to release water to a dry region. As Ric Davidge, the Water Czar of Alaska and water privatizing entrepreneur says about water, ‘It's not the money, it's the power.’ Water is the new power.
I tackled the Bottled Water issue in a unique way. I wanted to present bottled water within my theme of water as a matter of life and death, not bad consumer habits. So I investigated and found three startling stories about bottled water focusing on the corporate intimidation of citizens when communities stand in the way of them claiming water as a resource, profiting from bottled water in areas where no other drinkable water is available, and setting the legal stage for mass bulk water export that could be the most damaging trend to our environment and thus our survival.
I also tackle Desalination and why it's not an option, and the unseen exporting of water through crops and industry via what's known as Virtual Water.
I chose to option the DEFINITIVE book on the water crisis, Blue Gold, because I didn't want to make 'another water film', I wanted to make the DEFINITIVE water film. Whether or not I succeeded will be up to audiences and critics, but as Francis Ford Coppola said ‘It's better to try for something great and fail than to succeed at the ordinary.’
I do believe I will look back on Blue Gold as the most important work I've ever done.
Do we need another water film?
I know of eight water films, I'm sure there are more and I hope there will be dozens more until the problem is solved.
I started this film when my six-year son woke me to tell me he was thirsty. There's no alternative political agendas in my film. It's tempting to take an issue as important as the water crisis and attach other issues to it, because so much depends on water. My attempt is to focus on the issue of human survival and avoid all other debatable issues. I'm just a working-class dad who REFUSES to allow my son to ever have to worry about where his next glass of water comes from. Period.
If we are to win the war on water, I think we need to keep the fight that uncluttered and focus on the need for water as human survival and I don't know of any other film but Blue Gold that does this so ruthlessly.
Will people be motivated after seeing the film?
Yes, because it presents solutions equal in levity to the problems. I found the book Blue Gold while researching water politics with Si Litvinoff for a script we are writing, a sequel to Man Who Fell to Earth.
My background is narrative filmmaking, so I am trained to follow the three-act story structure; Set-up, Conflict, AND SOLUTION. What bothers me about most documentaries I see is that they seem to ignore the third act completely, or simply list something small in the credits you can do (i.e. the world is headed for Ice Age, so buy a hybrid). Don't get me wrong, I own two hybrids, but I find it irresponsible when filmmakers fail to complete the story, regardless whether the story is fiction or not.
So what first stuck me about the Blue Gold book was its three-act structure. The book was broken into three parts ‘The Crisis’, ‘The Politics’, AND ‘The Way Forward’. I am most proud of my ‘The Way Forward’ final section in the film. I worked very hard to seek out tangible actual solutions and explore them with the same vigour as I did problems.
Whereas many documentaries present a huge problem then say, ‘now go out and protest the problem’. I didn't want to make a film ‘about’ a protest. I wanted to make a film that ‘is' the protest.
How do you feel about the final product?
I produced, wrote, directed, shot, recorded sound, and edited the film. If there are problems then I only have myself to blame. I haven't had this sort of creative control since my short films in school. The experience has been so rewarding I hope I can self-produce more in the future. It's worth the risk to have the control
Most rewarding from the entire experience is meeting one of my documentary film heroes, Mark Achbar, and mentoring under him in the post production stage of the film. Even if the film failed, that experience is worth the entire journey for me.
Whether I make more documentaries or move onto my fiction films goals, I do believe I will look back on Blue Gold as the most important work I've ever done.
Blue Gold: World Water Wars, directed by Sam Bozzo will premiere at the Vancouver International Film Festival: http://www.viff.org/home.html
Order the DVD on Amazon.com - Blue Gold: World Water Wars
Visit Blue Gold: Water Wars: http://www.bluegold-worldwaterwars.com/
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