Synopsis for the Film
Film: The Water Front
Country: USA
Director: Liz Miller
Duration: 53 min
Category: People Speak Out
The post-industrial city of Highland Park, Michigan is on the verge of financial collapse and the almighty System can figure only one way out- come up with a ridiculous bureaucratic position titled Emergency Financial Manager, hike the water taxes and impose damning hard-line bill collection measures that would put loan sharks to shame. The residents, unable to bear the massive bills ($10,000) face not only water supply cut-offs but the possibility of losing their homes. Where does one turn to when the very system that you entrusted to protect and safe-guard your rights turns against you? Is it a failure of democracy itself? What does the ‘citizen’ do? Liz Miller’s incisive and thought-provoking documentary focuses on the power of the ‘citizen’ and how a collective yet singular voice can get the almighty System to bend at the knees.
Distinctions
Best of the Festival, Hazel Wolf Environmental Film Festival
Katherine Knight Award, EarthVision Environmental Film Festival
Best Water & Wetlands Film (Ramsar/Medwet Award), Ecofilms Rodos International Film and Visual Arts Festival
Margaret Mead Film & Video Festival
Environmental Film Festival In The Nation's Capital
Planet In Focus International Environmental Film Festival
Finger Lakes Environmental Film Festival
Anthropology Film Festival at UBC
Human Rights Film Festival, Paris
Princeton Environmental Film Festival
Environmental Film Festival of Catalonia, Barcelona
More Details
Liz Miller is a documentary filmmaker, community media artist, and professor with an MFA in Electronic Arts from Renssellaer Polytechnic Insitute and a BA in Social Thought and Political Economics from the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. For the last fifteen years, Miller has developed documentary and community media projects with youth, senior citizens and a wide range of human rights organizations. Miller has exhibited her work around the world and won awards from the International Association of Women in Radio and Film, Latin American Studies Association, and the National Educational Media Network.
