“Water Power” connects the dots from Detroit and Flint to Straits of Mackinac
WATER POWER from Kate Levy on Vimeo.
DETROIT – A new film that combines documentary filmmaking and music video to shine a light on Michigan’s water crises will be released Tuesday December 18 by award winning Detroit director Kate Levy and legendary Detroit MC and activist Will See. The film was shot throughout the Midwest, including Michigan during a protest of Enbridge’s Line 5 oil pipeline as well as on locations in Detroit and Flint.
“We’re using hip hop music and documentary techniques to provoke and educate people with regards to the poisoning of Flint, the poisoning of Detroit school students and the risk of pumping oil through the Great Lakes,” said Will See, hip hop artist and activist. “The music can help us face what we must acknowledge is a statewide crisis of lack of access to clean, safe, affordable water. From the poisoning of Flint to the threat of a massive oil spill in the Great Lakes, we need stand together like the folks did this past Labor Day, like the folks are doing in this video, like people are doing right now during the Republican lame duck disaster.”
The release of the film coincides with the convulsions of the GOP led lame duck session. The short film is adapted from a song written by Will See in 2010, when Detroit had yet to face hundreds of thousands of water shutoffs and the Flint Water Crisis was unknown as such. The original song was produced by Matthew Cross of Rise Like Lions Productions and featured Detroit artists Avierre the Don & Shawn Donatella.
Levy adapted verses to narrate the water crises across the state in 2018 and to connect water rights movements across the state. The short film features residents and activists from across Michigan, and is released in partnership with FLOW for Water, We the People of Detroit, People’s Water Board of Detroit, and Flint Rising.
Watch Water Power here: https://vimeo.com/katelevy/
The original song “Water Power” can be streamed or downloaded (audio)at: https://willseemusic.bandcamp.
