To coincide with Okotoks’ speaker series on water the Rotary Performing Arts Centre is getting in the act hosting the National Film Board of Canada documentary “Waterlife”.
Allan Boss, Okotoks cultural and historical services team leader, said “Waterlife” is about Canada’s Great Lakes and there will be a free screening at the Rotary Performing Arts Centre on May 5 at 7 p.m.
“It’s the story of the last great supply of fresh drinking water on earth,” he said. “It is about The Great Lakes and it is narrated by Gord Downie of the Tragically Hip. It is a really cool film.”
The film follows the cascade of The Great Lakes from Lake Superior to the Atlantic Ocean. It explores the beauty of water but also delves into the consequences of not respecting and preserving the resource.
“Waterlife” is the first in what is intended to be a series of free movies at the performing arts centre dealing with water related topics.
The films are being offered as a companion piece to the town’s ongoing Water & Growth series of symposiums featuring guest speakers. Flooding the local consciousness with water related information and opinion is not something the Town is doing on a whim, Boss explained, it is a reflection of ongoing realities within the community.
“Water is a huge theme in Okotoks,” he said. “Living within the watershed is an issue that’s been on everybody’s mind for a long time.”
Boss said ongoing flooding concerns related to the Sheep River are water related matter often on the mind of Okotoks residents.
While “Waterlife” does deliver a conservation message it is not a gloom and doom film. Stunning cinematography and profiles of people whose lives are deeply intertwined with The Great Lakes makes the film a celebration of water and not just a cry to preserve it.
While no firm screening dates are set for another film Boss said “Waterlife” will definitely not be a one and done proposition for the local water movie series being presented in cooperation with the National Film Board.
“We’re hoping to show a number of them throughout the year,” he said.
While the cultural representative for the Town admitted there likely won’t be any of the free films in the summer months they would definitely be back in September. Another National Film Board movie targeted for an upcoming showing is “Finding Farley”. It follows a wildlife biologist, his wife, two-year-old son and their intrepid dog named Willow in retracing the Canadian river journeys of renowned conservationist and author Farley Mowat.
