Water Docs Film Festival: Free Public Fest Posthumously Honours Sharkwater's Rob Stewart
By Jim Slotek
Memories are dim of my first encounter with the late marine-issues activist Rob Stewart. He was, after all, a child at one of his magazine-publisher parents’ social events, spending much of his time in the pool.
When I interviewed him years later - after he’d become the most famous shark advocate in the world - he recalled that pool, and remembered how he’d watch the sunlight interact with the water below the surface.
The late Water Warrior and eco-film director Rob Stewart
Stewart died in 2017 in a diving accident off the Florida Keys while filming Sharkwater Extinction, the sequel to his hugely successful 2006 anti-shark-finning film Sharkwater. In between, his eco manifesto Revolution presciently laid out the growth in awareness of the imperiled oceans and environment, the groups leading the fight, and the reality of the stakes facing future generations.
He is the ideal recipient of the Water Warrior Award at the Water Docs Film Festival, the annual free-to-the-public programme of current water-themed documentaries. This year’s 11th festival takes place Friday, November 17 to Sunday, November 19 in the auditorium at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE).
The presentation of Stewart’s Water Warrior Award will take place as part of Friday’s opening night program. His parents, Brian and Sandy (who played a big part in completing Shartwater: Extinction after Rob’s death), will be accepting the award on his behalf.
Opening night films include Inundation District, about the city of Boston’s stubborn decision to build a development, the Innovation District, on landfill at sea level, a confounding move that leaves no room for rising seas or surges. Conversely, House of Adaptation is about the flood-prone city of Rotterdam’s experiments with buildings that float with rising sea levels.
Other films on the weekend lineup include Bring The Salmon Home, a short film about the cooperation of three Indigenous Nations to restock the nearly-fished-out Columbia River with salmon. Nelson Kao’s 8 Billions: We Are All Responsible is a horrific rundown of Brazil’s worst environmental disaster, the dumping of 43.7 million cubic metres of mine tailings into the Doce River, poisoning the river and beaches. And Mi’kmaq
director Pamela Palmater’s Samqwan: Water is a compendium of activities that are sickening the water, including overfishing, clearcutting, fossil fuel extraction and other industrial activities.
Visit www.waterdocs.ca for further information about the programming and virtual programme.
CLICK HERE to register for free festival passes.