Let’s Get Talking!
Many films about water are being made all around the world. Let’s Talk About Water started with the simple idea: to engender change and awareness around the various local, regional, and global water issues we face, we need discussion—and what better force for sparking debate than the moving picture? Let’s Talk About Water (LTAW) is an award-winning event team available for university campuses and other community settings, composed of a film program and panel discussion about water problems and solutions.
Linda Lilienfeld, the Project Coordinator of Let’s Talk About Water and creator of this formula, has thirty-five years of film and picture research experience in history and natural science. Partnering with the Consortium of Universities for the Advancement of Hydrologic Science, Inc. (CUAHSI), Let’s Talk About Water is designed to bridge the paths of communication between scientists, students and the broader public community. A specially chosen program of films serves to engage and make accessible questions of water, while expert panel discussions bring perspective and focus to the film topics.
Why does Let’s Talk About Water exist?
- I believe in the power of film to make people think, feel and understand.
- I believe in the importance of water. It knits us and the physical world all together. We must learn to talk together beyond the boundaries of our normal lives. The efforts and knowledge of water scientists must be made more accessible to a wider public.
- I believe in the power of film to make this happen. Let’s talk about water! [Learn more about LTAW and about Linda.]
Let’s Talk About Water reviews subjects such as access to water, pollution, flooding, conservation, drought, impacts of global warming, policy challenges and more. Film viewings are followed by a lively and engaging discussion to make the topics relevant and interesting to the audience. Each event is tailored to the location, incorporating local issues, experts and themes relevant to the host. Events have ranged in scale from one film and one showing to seventeen films and twenty-eight different showings. A skilled pair of moderators actively manages the dialogue and challenges the panelists with follow-up questions to simplify the language of science and build a bridge between the audience and the speakers. We also include an opportunity to talk about careers in the water sciences.
CUAHSI—the Consortium of Universities for the Advancement of Hydrologic Science, Inc.—has partnered with us to serve as the technical support. They will provide expertise to localize the event, identify problems and solutions, and create the panel discussions that enliven the debate. [Visit www.cuahsi.org]
