The Water Front (2008)

•  Silver Drop Award, World Water Forum, Istanbul (2009)
•  Community Empowerment Award, NCRC, D.C (2009)
•  Honorable Mention, Chris Award, OH (2008)
• Katherine Knight Award, EarthVision Festival, CA (2008)
•  “Best of Fest”, Hazel Wolf Environmental Film Festival, WA (2008)
•  Documentary Finalist, San Fran Black Film Festival, CA (2008)
• Best Water and Wetlands Film, Ecofilms, Rodos, Greece (2007)
• Environmental Award, 7-minute , Media That Matters, NY (2006)
• Environmental Film Festival at the Nations Capitol, D.C, USA, (2008)
• Environmental Film Festival of Catalonia, Barcelona, Spain  (2008)
• Festival of Liberties, Brussels, (2008)
• Southeast Museum of Photography, Florida, (2008)
• World Water Tribune, Expo, Zaragoza, Spain, (2008)

Reviews

“Astutely crafted, The Water Front instantly evokes intrigue, compassion and at times outrage. The films’ engaging narrative will certainly captivate a wide audience and serve as an ideal educational tool. No matter your ideological position, this film clearly defines the relevant and global concerns we face about water today.”– Colleen Ayoup, Project Coordinator Citizen Shift, National Film Board of Canada

“This is a deeply moving and sometimes devastating look at the race and
class inequalities that still loom large in modern America, the failure
of government to serve its constituents, and the power of human beings
to fight back.”
– Scott Braid, Maryland Film Festival.

“Undoubtedly water will be one of the key issues to be fought over in the 21st century—whether you live in Highland Park, Michigan or Soweto, South Africa. To date people in Highland Park struggle to pay their highly inflated water bills in order to stay in their homes and keep their families together. The Water Front is an amazing movie that chronicles the institutional abuses of citizens in a city where fresh water resources are abundant. The threat of privatization and the commoditization of water strike a devastating blow to the working class and those least able to eke out a living. This movie should be viewed by everyone concerned about the survival of our communities and the just and equitable distribution of water resources”
– Bunyan Bryant, Ph.D. Director of the Environmental Justice Initiative at the University of Michigan School of Natural Resources and Environment, Ann Arbor, Michigan.

“What happens when neoliberal policies come home? The brilliant and engaging documentary The Water Front offers a sobering and eye-opening account of a privatization scheme and its effects on the poor and working class citizens of Highland Park, Michigan. Filmmaker Elizabeth Miller tells the stirring tale of a declining U.S. city and the valiant struggle of residents, inspired and led by African American women, to literally fight City Hall. This film is particularly arresting and provocative because of the object of struggle: control over the water supply.This well-crafted documentary film should be especially useful in making connections between neoliberal policies abroad and their counterparts here in our own backyard. It is ideal for community activists, NGOs and for high school and college teachers and students in urban studies, community studies, African-American studies, women’s and gender studies, state and local politics, social work, community economics, globalization and environmental studies.”
– Bruce Pietrykowski, University of Michigan-Dearborn, Professor of Economics

“Elizabeth Miller’s The Water Front is a powerful and moving account of a community taking control over its water and, in the process, making democracy work. If you thought water scarcity was still largely a “natural” problem in the developing world, this film makes it frighteningly clear how opportunistic entrepreneurs, in a time of growing environmental crisis, treat water as a commodity to be traded for their profit. This inspiring film shows a group of citizens successfully fighting the privatization of their water, the assault on their property, and slowing, for a moment, the growing inequality between the powerful and the rest.”
– Professor Martha Saxton, Amherst College

“We need materials such as The Water Front in order to start the crucial discussions of the management of our water resources. The solution requires the commitment of our elected representatives and the commitment of community members. The Water Front will help push water front and center for our decision makers who have failed to act.”
– Maj Fiil – Food & Water Watch

“As a social work instructor, I found using The Water Front film to be a powerful learning process. Throughout a course I taught on communities and organizations, my undergraduate students were engaged in a learning process, but yet limited when it came to understanding the plight of those trapped by poverty. When the class viewed the “The Water Front.” their learning process took on a different feel. They became actively engaged. They were asking questions about their communities and the organizations that serve them. They wanted to know how something like this can happens 50 miles from where they live and not be aware of it. All the lectures and readings on how those marginalized by our society are systemically oppressed became a living reality. The film motivated the students to act. During the following class sessions, students shared how they were participating in alleviating the water crisis. Most importantly, the students began to understand how racism, sexism, and classism can take away a human essential need such as water.”
– Michelle Williamson, Social Work Instructor Eastern Michigan University Ypsilanti, MI

 “Films like this,”, ‘are a way of putting a mirror to our society.’”
– Elaine S. Charnov, Margaret Mead festival curator

“Miller’s film does precisely what documentaries do best: it introduces us to a problem, sticks with it without losing focus and somehow makes us care deeply about the struggles of the people in front of the camera.”
– The Montreal Gazette, Saturday Nov. 3, 2007

“The Water Front is a wonderful new documentary that provides a chilling example of the global trend toward making water a private commodity rather than a right of all individuals to a public good. The film highlights strong African American women in the leadership of the organized protests, and juxtaposes their voices with that of the corporate consultants to local government. The film is excellent educational material for women’s studies courses as well as courses in environmental ethics and economic development. Every university and college library ought to own a copy!!”
– Ann Fergueson, Professor emerita, Philosophy and Women’s Studies, University of Massachusetts, Amherst

“The community leaders profiled in THE WATER FRONT are good examples of the wealth of talent and experience among older adults that’s ready to be tapped for solving social problems. The film is very much in line with Civic Ventures mission to reframe the debate about the aging of America by redefining the second half of life as a source of social and individual renewal.”
– David Banks, Executive Director, Civic Ventures.

“If you care about water and your ability to access it, you need to see THE WATER FRONT.”
– Ezra Winton, Programmer of Cinema Politica

“As water becomes scarcer and more expensive globally, managers of poor cities like (Highland Park) all over will be tempted to sell their most precious commodity even if they are unable to provide water to their own communities. They need viable alternative models and a commons movement that shares their dilemmas so that our beautiful Great Lakes water does not succumb to the Siren’s call of the quick and fickle market. THE WATER FRONT is more like a dramatic play with a gripping plot. The music is a great combo of Detroit electronic and Joe Carter’s blues and provides a moving background as the cast engages in a hometown struggle that can resonate with anyone who uses their tap and takes pride in their home.”
– Eunice Yu, Freelance Journalist.

Director’s statement

Most of us take water for granted. My objective in making The Water Front was to encourage more people to think about where the water we drink comes from, who is in charge of making decisions about this shared resource, and how to ensure everyone has access to water. Today public water utilities serve 81% of the American public, but corporations and private investors understand that aging public infrastructures present new investment opportunities. With the diminishing involvement of the state and federal government in supporting water systems, local officials are faced with difficult decisions.

How do local leaders determine what is best for their community? What does private investment in a water system really mean for residents, for water workers, for a community? Is water privatization a sustainable solution? What are the alternatives? I chose Highland Park, a city on the verge of turning its system over to private management to tell this story. Highland Park, Michigan, is a small African American city with a soulful past, known by many as the birthplace of Henry Ford’s assembly line.

I visited Highland Park January 2004 after learning that residents were receiving water bills as high as $10,000 and that half of the city had their water shut off. Ironically, unlike any other city or suburb in the Detroit area, Highland Park has its own water intake to the Great Lakes basin, which Ford secured in 1917 to support his auto industry. So here was a city located next to the largest fresh water supply in the world, and residents were cut off.

During my first visit to Highland Park, I met a group of inspiring women addressing the crisis. These women were involved with the civil rights movement; At the peak of the car industry they were labor organizers; When the industry left they became welfare organizers. Today these women declare access to water as the civil rights issue of our times.

On this same visit, I met water workers Tom White and Gloria Pogue, who were working non-stop managing a once glorious water plant. I also met the Emergency Financial Manager, a strong leader in her own right, who agreed to share her perspective on the situation and introduced me to her corporate team, including Steve Egan and Jan Lazar.

After meeting these strong individuals – primarily strong women leaders, I realized Highland Park was the place to tell an American story about water, democracy, and difficult decisions.

While many cities do not face the same financial challenges of a post-industrial city, Highland Park foreshadows the challenges that many cities around the world will face: aging water infrastructures, a lack of resources to update old systems, and a need to address management issues.

THE WATER FRONT is not just about water, but touches on the very essence of our democratic system. The Water Front presents a community in crisis but it also presents the powerful enactment of local participation in finding solutions to the problems of our times.