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London, UK. 9th Sep, 2016. The Curzon cinema on Shaftesbury Avenue in Soho, shows a special screening of the late David Bowie's movie, "The Man Who Fell To Earth" on its 40th anniversary. A special version in 4K, scanned from the original movie negatives, is now on theatrical release in a few select cinemas ahead of its release on DVD and Blu-Ray. Credit: Stephen Chung/Alamy Live News
Film tie-in version of The Man Who Fell to Earth by Walter Tevis. Cover shows David Bowie starring in the film by Nicolas Roeg.
THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH DAVID BOWIE Date: 1976
THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH 1976 British Lion film with David Bowie
THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH 1976 British Lion film with David Bowie
THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH DAVID BOWIE Date: 1976
David Bowie, "The Man Who Fell to Earth" 1976 File Reference # 30732 420THA
In the science-fiction film “The Man Who Fell to Earth”, David Bowie famously portrayed an alien from a planet running out of water. He left. However, we — on planet Earth — cannot. Ironically, it was while researching and writing a sequel to that film — in which we imagined a futuristic earth itself running out of water — that my producer Si Litvinoff found the book “Blue Gold: The Battle Against Corporate Theft of the World’s Water.”
Prod DB © Max L. Raab-Si Litvinoff Production / DR LA RANDONNEE (WALKABOUT) de Nicolas Roeg 1971 GB/AUSTR. aventure, australie, d'apres le roman de James Vance Marshall
Prod DB © Max L. Raab-Si Litvinoff Production / DR LA RANDONNEE (WALKABOUT) de Nicolas Roeg 1971 GB/AUSTR. aventure, australie, d'apres le roman de James Vance Marshall
Prod DB © Max L. Raab-Si Litvinoff Production / DR LA RANDONNEE (WALKABOUT) de Nicolas Roeg 1971 GB/AUSTR. avec David Gulpilil (as David Gumpilil) aventure, australie, aborigene d'apres le roman de James Vance Marshall
Prod DB © Max L. Raab-Si Litvinoff Production / DR LA RANDONNEE (WALKABOUT) de Nicolas Roeg 1971 GB/AUSTR. avec David Gulpilil (as David Gumpilil) aventure, australie, aborigene d'apres le roman de James Vance Marshall
Prod DB © Max L. Raab-Si Litvinoff Production / DR LA RANDONNEE (WALKABOUT) de Nicolas Roeg 1971 GB/AUSTR. jaquette du DVD americain avec Jenny Agutter, David Gulpilil (as David Gumpilil), Luc Roeg (as Lucien John) aventure, australie, aborigene d'apres le roman de James Vance Marshall
Prod DB © Max L. Raab-Si Litvinoff Production / DR LA RANDONNEE (WALKABOUT) de Nicolas Roeg 1971 GB/AUSTR. avec Jenny Agutter aventure, australie, d'apres le roman de James Vance Marshall
Prod DB © Max L. Raab-Si Litvinoff Production / DR LA RANDONNEE (WALKABOUT) de Nicolas Roeg 1971 GB/AUSTR. avec Luc Roeg (as Lucien John) et Jenny Agutter aventure, australie d'apres le roman de James Vance Marshall
Maude Barlow, Environmental Activist and Author of "Whose Water is It Anyway?"
Concluding with a step-by-step guide to making your own community blue, Maude Barlow’s latest book is a heartening example of how ordinary people can effect enormous change
"No water, no life. No blue, no green," said legendary oceanographer, deep sea explorer and field researcher Dr. Sylvia Earle. We won't build a healthier, sustainable food system without protecting the water and life that covers 71% of the Earth's surface.
After reading the book, I was horrified to discover that what was happening on our planet now was worse than what we were dreaming up for science fiction. I contacted the authors and began a several-year journey making the documentary “Blue Gold: World Water Wars”.
Director, Sam Bozzo, USA, speaks ahead of Executive Producer Mark Achbar (L) after they won the "VIFF Environmental Film Audience Award" for his film "Blue Gold: World Water Wars" before the closing gala screening of "The Class" at the Empire Granville 7 Theater on the last day of the Vancouver International Film Festival in Vancouver, British Columbia, October 10, 2008. (UPI Photo/Heinz Ruckemann)
Wars of the future will be fought over water as they are over oil today as the source of human survival enters the global marketplace and political arena. Corporate giants private investors and corrupt governments vie for control of our dwindling supply prompting protests lawsuits and revolutions from citizens fighting for the right to survive. Past civilizations have collapsed from poor water management. Can the human race survive?
Traveling the world making the film, I met activists and citizens who were all affected by the growing trend of governments allowing their water supply to be bought and sold by corporations vs. remaining in the public rights of the people. This ranged from Michigan citizens’ farms being drained by Nestle and fighting in court, to citizens taking to the streets in Revolution in Bolivia and being shot down by the military protecting corporate interests.
Nestle Purina pet food processing plant, Dunkirk, New York, USA.
Contract environmental well drillers drill a water well on the ramp of the 120th Airlift Wing in Great Falls, Mont. Sept. 21, 2017. The wells will be tested and monitored for contaminants as part of the ongoing Installation Restoration Program on the Montana Air National Guard base. Reminders that it takes a well-funded institution such as the military to effectively address water quality and access issues, for civilians and soldiers on and off bases.
A Marine attached to Deployment Processing Command Reserve Support Unit-East, Force Headquarters Group, runs water of his face after gas chamber training at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, Oct. 22, 2019. The DPC/RSU-East staff provide activated Reserve units/dets various types of training such as gas chamber qualification. During the qualification, Marines are taught chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear threats, reactions to CBRN attacks, and how to take proper care and use of a gas mask. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Sgt. Andy O. Martinez). Only in recent years did veterans, former reservists and National Guardsmen in service from August 1, 1953 to December 31, 1987 for no less than 30 consecutive or non-consecutive days stationed within the borders of the entirety of the United States Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune and Marine Corps Station New River, North Carolina find out they were exposed to contaminants in the water supply that cause kidney cancer, liver cancer, Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, Adult leukemia (developed after qualifying exposure at Camp Lejeune), multiple myeloma, Parkinson's disease, Aplastic anemia, myelodysplastic syndromes, and bladder cancer.
March 8, 2014. Graffiti protesting against use of water resources by Paguanta and other mining projects, Iquique, Region I , Chile. Graffiti translates as: "Against the theft of Aymara water." The declaration of war against mining and Paguanta" Water rights are a controversial topic in northern Chile, much of which is barren Atacama Desert. A lot of the water reserves in the region's Andean highlands are exploited by huge mining projects. Many local inhabitants (the Aymara are the main indigenous group that live in the Andes) voice that their water supplies for crops and livestock are being seriously depleted as a result. The Paguanta Project (which is 70% owned by Herencia Resources) was due to begin in 2014, with production starting in 2015, having recently had feasibility studies approved. It plans to exploit huge silver, zinc and lead reserves near Cerro Colorado, using both open-cast and underground mining methods.
July 9, 2009 Central Valley, California, Protests regarding a cut in water allocations brought about by a mandate by Congress
November 17, 2015 Modesto, California. Sign near Fresno in Central Valley of California protests lack of water allocated to farms
Republican banner at Anti-water charges protests in O'Connell Street Dublin Ireland in April 2015
20 May 2017 Miami Beach Florida,oil spill protest,offshore drilling,Black plastic sheet represents slick Atlantic Ocean
The Economist magazine February 10th- 16th 1996 Bechtel Engineering company, manufacturing plants, manufacturing in Chinese advert. In the context of Blue Gold: The World Bank wouldn’t give the local water co-op a loan, and forced them to privatize the water. The Bolivian people didn’t like this, and protests started across the country. People were arrested, injured, and killed, but it wasn’t for nothing. The subsidiary to Bechtel was kicked out of the country and the water was given back to the people.
Monument to El Che in the village La Higuera where Che Guevara was killed by the Bolivian army, Vallegrande Province, Santa Cruz Department, Bolivia
CUBA - CIRCA 1972: A stamp printed in Cuba from the "5th Anniversary of The Day of Guerrillas" issue shows Tamara Bunke (Tania) and map of Bolivia
Julie Shayne explores the roles of women in revolutionary struggles and the relationship of these movements to the emergence of feminism. What do women do for revolutions? And what do revolutions do for women? Julie Shayne explores the roles of women in revolutionary struggles and the relationship of these movements to the emergence of feminism. Focusing upon the three very different cases of El Salvador, Chile, and Cuba, Shayne documents the roles of women in armed and unarmed political activities. She argues that women contribute to and participate in revolutionary movements in ways quite distinct from men. Despite the fact that their political contributions tend to be seen as less important than those of their male comrades, the roles that women play are actually quite significant to the expansion of revolutionary movements. Shayne also explains how, given the convergence of political and ideological factors, feminism is often born in the wake of revolutionary movements. As a result, revolutionary feminism is a struggle that addresses larger structures of political and economic inequalities. Based on extensive in-depth interviews with activists in all three countries, The Revolution Question offers new insight into the complex gender relations underlying revolutionary social movements and enables us to re-assess both the ways that women affect political struggle and the ways in which political struggle affects women.
Minsk, Belarus - October 25, 2020. Barbed wire, troops. Peaceful protesting against dictator Lukashenko. Peaceful demonstration against government violence and electoral fraud in Belarus. Water as a potential weapon: water cannon, troops
Morgue of the Hospital Señor de Malta where the dead body of Ernesto Che Guevara was brought in 1967 in the town Vallegrande, Santa Cruz, Bolivia
Sacramento, California 15th March, 2014 An estimated crowd of 4, 000 protesters took buses from 16 different cities to the state capitol to demand Governor Jerry Brown ban hydraulic fracturing. In what’s being dubbed the largest anti-fracking rally in California’s history, the ‘Don’t Frack California’ protest was voicing their concerns about earthquakes, air & water pollution, and climate change urging Governor Jerry Brown to stop all fracking in California. Credit: Lisa Werner/ Alamy Live News
21 July 2008. Citizens of India block the road protesting for water supply. Jodhpur; Rajasthan, India.
Members of the Revolutionary Workers Party (POR) during a protest march on Labour Day May 1st, 2019 La Paz, Bolivia
"The Struggle is in the street" graffiti on side of security hut, La Paz, Bolivia
In every corner of the world, people were fighting for their basic rights to water, which we need to survive. And they still are. The problem has not diminished since I made the film ten years ago, but I have been honored by the impact the film has had in spreading the word. A sixth-grade girl in Canada saw the film and spoke with her major to keep their water public. Activist groups use the film around the world in similiar fashion. I’ve created a Facebook page to spread the word of water conflict news, and so have unknowingly become an expert on a subject that should not exist, since water should belong to the people.
Dublin, Ireland. November 18, 2014. Sheila Giles Mullan joins protestors outside Leinster House in Dublin as the Government are due to announce new water charges.
A public protest in front of the parliament building on South Africa's Freedom Day on April 27, 2018 included signs protesting the privatization of water. Cape Town's water crisis has been a boon to water privatization with the bottled water industry seeing huge growth in sales and private desalination plants setting up shop on the Western Capes shoreline.
29 October 2018. Basra: Iraq's third-largest city, suffering with unemployment, poverty and corruption, water pollution and protests.
London, UK. 11th Nov, 2023. A protest is taking place against the escalation of military action in Gaza as the conflict between Israel and Hamas continues. Organised by groups including Palestine Solidarity Campaign and Stop the War Coalition, titled ‘National March for Palestine’ and with calls to ‘free Palestine’, ‘end the violence’ and ‘end apartheid’, the protesters gathered in Park Lane before heading south and over Vauxhall Bridge. One protester took to the water, holding a flag and poppy
Austin, Texas, USA. 13th Nov, 2023. A young woman has water poured on her hands during the protest and march against the Israeli-Palestine conflict. Thousands protested and marched from the Texas State Capitol on November 12. (Credit Image: © Jaime Carrero/ZUMA Press Wire)
Syrian Water Tractor, March 21, 2011
A woman holds a cardboard reading 'Textile industry = 2nd most polluting industry'. Members of XR Toulouse (Extinction Rebellion) organized a protest in front of a pop-up SHEIN shop. The Chinese brand SHEIN opened a pop-up store in Toulouse only for 4 days. XR wanted to raise awareness about water consumption and waste, overconsumption of resources, workers' conditions, and abuse of human rights in China. They are against fast fashion as it's a waste of natural resources. Toulouse. France. May 28th 2022.
Detroit, Michigan USA - 18 June 2018 - Several hundred people rallied in Detroit to support the Poor Peoples Campaign against poverty, racism, militarism, and ecological devastation. They rallied in front of the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department. Water has been shut off to many poor Detroit residents because of their inability to pay their bills. Credit: Jim West/Alamy Live News
Detroit, Michigan USA - A delegation from Canada delivered water to Detroit as a protest against the city's water shutoffs. As it tries to recover from bankruptcy, the city is shutting off water to tens of thousands of residents living in poverty who are behind on their bills. Maude Barlow (lower left), national chair of the Council of Canadians, was part of the delgation.
10 June 2008. Women with water containers protest against the acute water shortage in Bombay, Mumbai, India
Portobello, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK. 20 May 2023. Watersport enthusiasts took to the sea at portobello Beach and other venues across the UK for a Paddle-Out Protest against sewage being dumped in waterways
Parliament Square, London, UK. 13 March 2023. The Red Rebels mime troupe with a "Save Our Water" banner during a protest against water pollution.
Blackpool, Lancashire, UK 24th April, 2014. Blackpool and the Fylde has been the epicentre for the one time the ‘fracking’ part of the process of shale gas extraction has taken place. Michael Fallon MP, Secretary of State for Business & Energy met with representatives from North West businesses to discuss what they can gain from the controversial drilling process. Individuals, groups, activists, and local residents representing farming and tourism sectors object to plans to ‘frack’ for shale gas in the Bowland Shale. Credit: Mar Photographics
Sydney, Australia. 02nd Sep, 2015. Protests outside the Sydney offices of the energy company AGL over plans to mine for coal seam gas in New South Wales. The protests are now in their 100th week.
Buenos Aires, Argentina; May 21, 2022: Environmental protest posters: No more ecocide. Water is not to be sold, it is to be defended. Danger of extinguishing everything.
Detroit, Michigan USA, July 23, 2014 A delegation from Canada delivered water to Detroit as a protest against the city's water shutoffs. As it tries to recover from bankruptcy, the city is shutting off water to tens of thousands of residents living in poverty who are behind on their bills. Maude Barlow (speaking), national chair of the Council of Canadians, brought water to St. Peter's Episcopal Church, one of the sites activists have set up where residents can go to pick up water if their service has been shut off.
London, UK. 16th May, 2016. Maude Barlow, Chair of the Council of Canadians,speaking at the protest and vigil outside Canada House condemning the secret CETA trade deal currently nearing completion between Canada and the EU. Negotiations have been in secret and the deal would allow the big corporations to force privatisation of public services such as the NHS and prevent governments adopting environmental legislation that might harm company profits. The deal wil not be voted on in the UK parliament and ours is the only EU Parliament that cannot veto CETA or TTIP. Peter Marshall
A logo sign outside of a facility occupied by Veolia Water in Cary, North Carolina on November 29, 2015.
A logo sign outside of a facility occupied by Suez Environnement in Ancaster, Ontario, Canada, on April 15, 2017.
Coca-Cola sponsored school sign in Iganga, Uganda, East Africa.
Only through further films, blogs, and books can we spread the word of this problem globally and hopefully make water the human right it should be.
Sincerely,
Sam "Bozzo" Vartek
