Indigenous Activists Fight Corporate Exploitation in ‘Water For Life’ Documentary
Even if the rhetorical buzzwords “capitalist exploitation” and “blue gold” are not uttered throughout Will Parrinello’s award-winning documentary Water For Life, the wrongs embodied by those buzzwords are shown so straightforwardly in this film that using the actual terms would be superfluous. Perhaps that’s why PBS (the Public Broadcasting System) might be the best venue for the initial national television broadcast of this film, which takes place on April 21, 2025. PBS may depend on corporate largesse to keep the lights on, but at least it makes some space for showing films that implicitly question the belief that unfettered capitalism is an inherent social good. (Could that be why the highly criticism-adverse Orange Felon and the Musk Rat are trying to eliminate PBS?) Even if the viewer misses the broadcast premiere of this 2023 Mill Valley Film Festival Audience Favorite Documentary, Parrinello’s film will be available for streaming on the PBS web site for several months afterwards.
Water For Life tells the story of three indigenous activists from three different countries in South and Central America fighting to preserve their tribe’s access to the clean water sources that enables them to grow food and/or medicinal crops and just basically live. However, these same-life-giving waters are coveted by various governments and corrupt elites for such money making purposes as tools for hydroelectric power generation and mineral extraction.
The film, which is narrated by actor Diego Luna, is structured as a trio of portraits of its central water defender subjects. These water advocates are Alberto Curamil (Chile), Francisco Pineda (El Salvador), and Berta Caceres (Honduras).
Curamil hails from the Chilean Indigenous group known as the Mapuche. This tribal leader wants to protect the Cautin River. For the Mapuche, the Cautin is both their territory’s lifeblood and a spiritual being. To the Chilean government, on the other hand, this enormous river is a perfect source of hydroelectric power. That exploitative desire leads to certain important corners being cut, notably not consulting the Mapuche on the best way to use the water so both the government and the tribe will benefit.
For Curamil and his allies, this struggle over water access will be an uphill battle. Indigenous rights are not recognized in the Chilean constitution. What’s more, water rights are commonly treated as goods to be bought and sold on the stock exchange. As a result, the Mapuche are dissuaded from the act of using their own water under the threat of being sued for theft. Feelings run high enough that timber company trucks on Mapuche land get subjected to arson while a pro-exploitation politician characterizes a sign saying “You Are In Mapuche Territory” as an act of terrorism.
Pineda may just be a simple farmer whose happiness depends on getting clean water, clean air, and arable land to grow corn and raise cattle. However, when the Pacific Rim mining company comes to Pineda’s town of San Ysidro, their claims of being a socially and environmentally responsible mining company turns out to be a lot of verbal greenwashing. After two years of Pacific Rim’s operation of the El Dorado gold mine, the company’s gold exploratory efforts uses in just one hour the same amount of water one of Pineda’s farming neighbors would use in 30 years. The result: for Pineda and other farmers who lived downstream from the mine, the river has dried up and also killed tilapia and other edible fish calling the river home. Letting Pacific Rim get official permission to mine for gold means having heavy metals added to the river water from El Dorado’s operations. Cyanide, for example, is regularly used in the gold extraction process.
Pineda’s efforts to shut down the mining company is a particular act of bravery given that El Salvador has a long history of people who get in the way of the powerful’s desires winding up dead. But physical violence or death threats are not the only ways Pacific Rim ruthlessly defends its financial interests.
For several reasons, the Honduran Caceres gets the film’s longest section. Probably the most famous of the film’s three central subjects, the indigenous activist is followed by Parrinello in her fight against the proposed Agua Zarca Dam. The dam, if it gets built, would deny the Lenca people access to the waters of the Gualcarque River they need to grow their food and medicinal plants.
However, the dam project has a couple of very big backers. One is the large Chinese dam construction company Sinohydro. The other is the Honduran electric company Desarrollos Energetico SA (DESA), which has gotten financial backing from the World Bank and other international financial entities to make this project a reality.
Further complicating Caceres’ efforts is the unfortunate reality that a highly corrupt elite controls practically everything of value in Honduras. President Manuel Zelaya, who tried to use his presidential powers to start rectifying this highly unequal economic situation, got overthrown and sent into exile by the Honduran Army, which sided with the country’s corrupt elites. So Caceres is under no illusions regarding the seriousness of the death threats she receives because of her work.
Water For Life will give viewers some stunning images of the rivers being fought for. Seeing footage of these waters’ beauty and their magnificence will make viewers understand why the three different indigenous groups attribute spirit and life to these rivers.
Parrinello generously allows the supporters of these dam and mining projects to have their say about the indigenous activists fighting them. But it’s not the director’s fault if these advocates sound utterly patronizing (e.g. DESA “crisis attorney” Robert Amsterdam noting Lenca ingratitude at DESA’s providing electricity and infrastructure to them without explaining how much of those acts were altruistic). When conservative types complain about “lack of balance,” they usually mean lack of effort to make their side look good. But people such as Parrinello are only obligated to present a general idea of what the opponents of Curamil, Pineda, and Caceres believe. Viewers’ negative reactions to such viewpoints are not the director’s responsibility.
“Water For Life” refers to a recognition of the importance of having access to this essential resource to make life possible. But in one of the portraits in this film, it could also refer to the tragic price one subject pays for keeping the water they’re defending clean and available to those who depend on it for existence.
Water For Life will be broadcast on your local PBS station starting on April 21, 2025. After that, it will be available for streaming at www.pbs.org.
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