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The Center for American Progress’s Reel Progress film series and the DC Environmental Film Festival are excited to present a special double-feature screening of the short film “A Grand Threat” and the documentary “Watershed: Exploring a New Water Ethic for the New West.”
“A Grand Threat” is the story of the new rush to mine for uranium around the Grand Canyon and the advocates who are fighting against it, including a tribal leader whose sacred lands are threatened by increased mining activity and a former park supervisor who warns of the risks of water contamination in the canyon’s fragile ecosystem. The film was directed by Andrew Satter and Jessica Goad and produced by the Center for American Progress and the Sierra Club.
“Watershed: Exploring a New Water Ethic for the New West” explores the most dammed, dibbed, and diverted river in the world—the Colorado—and its struggles to support 30 million people across the western United States and Mexico. Since the peacekeeping agreement known as the Colorado River Pact is reaching its limits, the film poses two questions: How can we meet the needs of a growing population in the face of rising temperatures and lower rainfall in an already arid land, and how do we balance the competing interests of cities, agriculture, recreation, wildlife, and indigenous communities with rights to the water? In “Watershed,” we meet a group of seven diverse individuals who are all living and working in the Colorado River basin who reflect a compelling new water ethic as they share their stories and illuminate a path of coexistence with enough for all.
Following the films, a panel of experts will discuss the water issues raised in the films and explore potential solutions to those problems.
Distinguished Panelists:
Anne Castle, Assistant Secretary for Water and Science, U.S. Department of the Interior
Sandra Postel, Freshwater Fellow, National Geographic Society and Director, Global Water Policy Project
Gary Wockner, Campaign Coordinator, Save the Colorado
Moderator:
Christy Goldfuss, Director, Public Lands Project, Center for American Progress