Water is Life

4 films in this block • 57 minutes

The Films

Do changing lake levels affect Wisconsin's forests and wetlands?

  • Year 2025
  • Country USA
  • Runtime 6 min
  • Director Bonnie Willison

Filmmaker in Attendance, Family Friendly

Scattered around the shores of the Great Lakes are unique ridge and swale ecosystems, created over thousands of years and home to many rare species. Researcher Steve Loheide wants to know what’s happening beneath these landscapes - how shifting Great Lakes water levels ripple underground, and what that could mean for this fragile ecosystem’s future.

Raised by the Canoe

  • Year 2026
  • Country Canada
  • Runtime 17 min
  • Director Cathrine Paul

Has Subtitles, Michigan Premiere

Amid modern distractions and challenges faced by Indigenous peoples, staying connected to culture can be challenging. Meet the Terry Lee Canoe Club as it experiences a powerful resurgence as the next generation strives to nurture and reestablish the canoe culture of their region of British Columbia, Canada.

The Right to Know: Groundwater Contamination in Wisconsin's Farm Country

  • Year 2026
  • Country USA
  • Runtime 17 min
  • Director Nels Lindquist

Filmmaker in Attendance, Michigan Premiere

In America’s Dairyland, many families only learn that the water coming from their wells is toxic once it’s far too late. The Right to Know follows people living with nitrate and bacterial contamination caused by factory farming, and shows how knowing what’s in your water can be a matter of life and death.

Water is Life

  • Year 2025
  • Country USA
  • Runtime 17 min
  • Director Richard Mack, John Manos

Filmmaker in Attendance, First Time Filmmaker

Water is Life covers issues facing the Great Lakes in brief yet explains how people around the region are doing something when it comes to the challenges they face. This is a synopsis of the longer documentary still in production.