Embodying Water: the 2025 UofT x Water Docs Film Festival
by the Cinema Studies Sensory Ecologies class of 2025
As water flows through, stories find their current.
For the 2024/2025 academic year, the Cinema Studies department at the University of Toronto launched a new experiential learning course called Sensory Ecologies: Theory and Praxis in Environmental Studies. Led by Professor Nadine Chan, our class has explored how media helps us construct and understand the concept of environmental degradation. Through scholarly research, various forms of media, and even experimenting with making our own media projects, we have seen firsthand how important storytelling is in conceptualizing the environment, and stoking passion for climate justice.
As a class, we are incredibly passionate about bringing the lessons from the course into our communities, and disbursing them to a larger audience. We wanted to share the impact that media can have as it reflects our place on Earth and what our relationship is to our natural resources back to us, emphasizing our deep and mutual responsibility in responding to the degradation of our planet. For the very short while that we have been afforded on this planet, how will we help it get better, and turn the tide on the health of Mother Earth?
This is exactly why Ecologos/Water Docs has been the most wonderful partner in making this all come true! Water is one of the most crucial, life-sustaining forces that exists on Earth, and which is under massive threat. Water pervades our lives, from every sip we take, to every drop of rain we feel. Yet, we do not often respect its role in our lives. Events like the Water Docs Film Festivals, where water, its impact, and the urgent importance of its protection, is front and centre, is captured through the medium of film. It is this very project we were excited to collaborate on this year, with their support and guidance! Like Water Docs Film Festival’s mission has been for years, our class also realized the importance of stepping out of the “doom and gloom” mindset, and instead, showcasing the beauty and miracle that is our Earth, and the necessity of protecting our home.
Generating a film festival which disseminates this very mission and working as a team to make it happen has been invaluable for all of us. Learning practical skills that we will be able to apply in our later careers has been among the largest of these benefits. Working on this festival along with our other coursework has been challenging, but well worth it, and wholly inspiring for every single one us. We have been able to step outside of the theoretical, and into the practical, and we cannot wait to engage all of these powerful forms of media with our entire community.
Film is such a powerful tool for climate justice, but also for creativity and connection. At our festival on March 8th, 2025, we are thrilled to connect and contribute all of these ideas with our audience. We are so proud of all the work our class has put in and we are also so grateful to the Water Docs Film Festival for their generous collaboration. We cannot wait to see you at the movies!
University of Toronto’s Cinema Studies Course
Class of 2025-Sensory Ecologies: Theory and Praxis in Environmental Media Studies