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Your FREE All ACCESS PASS will admit you to all in-person AND virtual screenings at the 2023 Water Docs Film Festival.

Virtual access available Nov 20 - Dec 17.

FRI NOV 17 at 6PM

Water, Water, Everywhere

Presented in collaboration:

The Ecologos Environmental Organization
Regenterating Toronto
School of the Environment
at the University of Toronto

Funded by:

The Government of Canada’s
Community Services Recovery Fund

Also made possible by:

Stantec, Peterborough KM Hunter Foundation,
and the ongoing financial support of our many donors.

2023 Water Docs Water Warrior Award

Join us on opening night for the Water Docs Water Warrior Award presentation. Water Docs presents an award at each Water Docs Film Festival to an individual to highlight the work of someone who exemplifies and embodies Ecologos' mission—namely, to restore the human connection to water while motivating people to take action to protect our planet's most precious element.

**Rob Stewart**
Dec. 28, 1979 - Jan. 31, 2017

The 2023 Water Warrior Award will be presented posthumously to the late filmmaker, author, biologist, and conservationist, Rob Stewart (b: Dec. 28, 1979 - d: Jan. 31, 2017) on Friday, November 17 at the opening night of the Water Docs Film Festival. Rob’s mother and father, Sandy and Brian Stewart will be present to accept the award.

Rob was a biologist, conservationist, activist and filmmaker. His greatest impact was his two films, SHARKWATER and REVOLUTION, his books and the millions of supporters that carry on his mission worldwide. Born in 1979 and raised in Toronto, Rob graduated from the University of Western Ontario. He dedicated his life to conservation, saying: “Conservation is the preservation of human life. And, that, above all else is worth fighting for.” Read more about Rob Stewart here.

Our opening night screening is all about flooding and sea-level rise and how we can continue with the status quo or we can adapt to this climate change reality.

INUNDATION DISTRICT*
Director: David Abel
UNITED STATES | 2023 | 79 MIN

In a time of rising seas and intensifying storms, one of the world’s wealthiest, most-educated cities made a fateful decision to spend billions of dollars erecting a new district along its coast — on landfill, at sea level. Unlike other places imperiled by climate change, this neighborhood of glass towers housing some of the world’s largest companies was built well after scientists began warning of the threats, including many at its renowned universities. The city, which already has more high-tide flooding than any other in the United States, called its new quarter the Innovation District. But with seas rising inexorably, and at an accelerating rate, others are calling the neighborhood by a different name: Inundation District.

*Please note: INUNDATION DISTRICT will not be available for streaming in our virtual festival.

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House of Adaptation
Director: Onur Can Tepe
NETHERLANDS | 2023 | 42 MIN

The Global Center on Adaptation (GCA) is an NGO working on adapting the world to a changing climate. When looking for a place for their headquarters, the city of Rotterdam proposed to donate them a building that will float with the rising sea levels.
The documentary film takes the viewers on a journey through the minds of all the people that gave life to this project: politicians, designers and builders. Why would you build a floating building in the middle of the city and what does it have to do with climate politics? The film contains the answers to these questions, gives a sneak view into the board rooms of GCA and holds a place for the legendary mayor of Rotterdam: Ahmed Aboutaleb.

Q&A

Join us in conversation after the screenings with
INUNDATION DISTRICT Director, David Abel and House of Adaptation
Director, Onur Can Tepe & Cinematographer, Marcel IJzerman

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Ecologos/Water Docs is a charitable organization.
Please consider supporting Ecologos/Water Docs
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Revenue from the Water Docs Film Festival will support
the film festival and ongoing Water Docs programs.
Please visit www.waterdocs.ca to learn more.

About the Directors

David Abel
INUNDATION DISTRICT
David Abel is a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter who covers climate change for The Boston Globe. Abel’s work has also won an Edward R. Murrow Award, the Ernie Pyle Award from the Scripps Howard Foundation, and the Sigma Delta Chi Award for Feature Reporting. Abel's last film, "Entangled," won a Jackson Wild award, known as the Oscars of nature films. It also won Best Feature Film at the International Wildlife Film Festival, Best Conservation Film at the International Ocean Film Festival, and the John de Graaf Environmental Filmmaking Award at the Wild & Scenic Film Festival. In 2022, it was nominated for a national Emmy award. Abel also co-directed and produced “Sacred Cod,” a film about the collapse of the iconic cod fishery in New England, which was broadcast by the Discovery Channel in the spring of 2017. He also directed and produced two films about the Boston Marathon bombings, which were broadcast to national and international audiences, on BBC World News, Discovery Life, and Pivot. His other films include “Lobster War” and “Gladesmen: The Last of the Sawgrass Cowboys.” “Lobster War,” which is being distributed by Gravitas Ventures, won the 2018 award for “Best New England Film” at the Mystic Film Festival and was runner-up for the Grand Prize for Best Feature Film at the 2018 International Maritime Film Festival. “Gladesmen” won the 2018 Made in Miami Award at the Miami Film Festival. Both of those films are also being distributed by Bullfrog Films. Abel, who began learning to make films as a Nieman fellow at Harvard University, is the "Inundation District's" director, producer, writer, and director of photography.

Onur Can Tepe
House of Adaptation
Onur Can Tepe is a writer, filmmaker, and architect based in Rotterdam.

His work as an architect designing spaces has expanded into writing and filming where space plays an important role. His films deal with societal matters in relation to natural and built landscapes and they are shown at various film festivals, museums and Biennales. His latest film House of Adaptation narrates the story of an NGO working on climate adaptation moving to Rotterdam and is currently in distribution.

“Floating Office Rotterdam is the main protagonist of the film House of Adaptation and sits at the cross-section of many interests. Depending on the perspective, it can function as a political tool, or an investment object, or an architectural project, or simply as a statement. It mobilises many people and it has a different meaning for each and every one of them.

With this film we tried to break the singular narrative of this project and give a stage to every one involved in it and edited in four chapters: Intentions, Blueprints, Makers and Result. The aim of our 3 year long effort was to lift the curtain behind the realisation of this project and listen what this might show us about climate-politics, personal ambitions and the joy of building buildings.”

IN-PERSON: "Water, Water, Everywhere"