Features
Holly Wren Spaulding
It was 5 a.m. and I had the loveless job of rousing the rest of the tired crew for another long day of cross-country travel, interviews, and shooting in South Africa. Weary, yet determined, we had an ambitious proposal: to make a feature documentary about the threats to our global water supply, what that means for the survival of humans and the planet, and what can be done to address the growing crisis.
Irena Salina, director of the now newly completed film FLOW: For Love of Water, had wanted to get to the far eastern coast of South Africa to visit a Zulu village where people were sick, and in many cases, dying, due to lack of access to clean drinking water. To do so, wed drive all day through uncertain terrain, navigate language barriers, forebear the oppressive heat, and eventually find a hotel well after midnight. Tomorrow, wed be in an urban community where poor people were having their taps disconnected for lack of funds to pay the water company. What was I doing? Why was I racing around southern Africa with a multinational team of independent filmmakers?