Waterlife

{{Infobox film

| name = Waterlife

| image =

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| native_name =

| director = Kevin McMahon

| producer = Kristina McLaughlin

| writer =

| screenplay = Kevin McMahon

| story =

| based_on =

| starring =

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| cinematography = John Minh Tran

| editing = Christopher Donaldson

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| released = {{Film date|2009}}

| runtime = 1h 49m

| country = Canada

| language = English

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}}

Waterlife is a 2009 documentary film and web documentary about the state of the Great Lakes. It was directed by Kevin McMahon.

Film

McMahon began filming Waterlife in 2007. The film explores the beauty of the Great Lakes as well as their degradation due to water pollution.{{cite news|last=Keenan|first=Marney Rich |title=Film paints frightening picture of Great Lakes in jeopardy|url=http://detnews.com/article/20101117/OPINION03/11170342/Film-paints-frightening-picture-of-Great-Lakes-in-jeopardy#ixzz169yQml4g|accessdate=24 November 2010|newspaper=The Detroit News|date=17 November 2010}} The film looks at the water system from its headwaters in Lake Superior to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, accompanied by Josephine Mandamin, an Anishinabe elder from Thunder Bay, who walks along the Great Lakes each spring to protest deteriorating conditions.{{cite news|last=Lacey|first=Liam|title=Great Lakes script could have used more filtration|url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/waterlife/article1169000/|accessdate=24 November 2010|newspaper=The Globe and Mail|date=22 June 2009}}

Waterlife is co-produced by Primitive Entertainment and the National Film Board of Canada (NFB).{{cite web|title=Waterlife|url=http://www.onf-nfb.gc.ca/eng/collection/film/?id=55963|work=Collection|publisher=National Film Board of Canada|accessdate=24 November 2010}} The film received the Special Jury Prize for Canadian Feature at the 2009 Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival.{{cite web|title=Hot Docs 2009 Awards|url=http://www.hotdocs.ca/index.php/daily/hot_docs_2009_awards_presentation/|work=Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival}} The United Kingdom distributor is Dogwoof Pictures.{{cite news|last=Afan|first=Emily Claire|title=Dogwoof acquires NFB docs|url=http://playbackonline.ca/2010/11/19/dogwoof-acquires-nfb-docs/|accessdate=17 December 2011|newspaper=Playback|date=19 November 2010}}

Web documentary

The interactive version of Waterlife was created by Toronto-based web and design company Jam3 and creative directors Adrian Belina and Pablo Vio for the NFB, incorporating material from the documentary film. The conception and development of the website took approximately four months. Waterlife explores different aspects of the state of the Great Lakes through 23 individual sections, incorporating text, images and sound.{{cite news|last=Anderson|first=Kelly|title=Waterlife flows into the web|url=http://playbackonline.ca/2009/07/31/waterlife-20090731/|accessdate=24 November 2010|newspaper=Playback|date=31 July 2009}} It received the Webby Award for best web documentary (individual episode).{{cite web|title=Waterlife wins Webby Award for best web documentary|url=http://www.idfa.nl/industry/Festival/news/archive/2010/latest_news/06-05-10-waterlife-wins-webby-for-best-web-documentary.aspx|work=International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam}}