Water-Wise Filmmaking

Laguna Beach IMAX movie pioneer, Greg MacGillivray, releases his latest project, which documents the alarming shrinking of the Colorado River.

ure, it seems there’s an official day for everything – International Earth Day, American President’s Day, Orphaned Calico Cat Day – but World Water Day (March 22, 2008) is actually pretty important. It’s designed to bring awareness to the fact that we are in shortening supply of one of the few needed ingredients for life on Earth. In fact, with tapped-out world aquifers, waterways dammed to extinction and wetlands turned to deserts, 1.5 billion people (one in five on the planet) are in a state of chronic thirst. The United Nations estimates that 40% of the world could face perilous water shortages by 2050.

That’s an alarm that was heard by Laguna Beach’s favorite filmmaker, two-time Academy Award-nominated Greg MacGillivray, the pioneer of IMAX films and producer/director of Grand Canyon Adventure: River at Risk. His grand vision has brought lovers of the really big screen up close and personal with the roof of the world (Everest), the floors of the ocean (Coral Reef Adventure) and its inhabitants (Dolphins). Now, in his first IMAX 3-D film, MacGillivray trains his lens on the Colorado River.

Grand Canyon Adventure follows two environmental heroes, world-renowned river advocate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and celebrated author/anthropologist/explorer Wade Davis, as they take their daughters (the next generation) on a fascinating and illuminating rafting journey down the Colorado River. Comparing what they see with 3-D photos taken by Jack Hillers in 1872, they, and we, see in shocking detail just how much the Colorado has suffered. Due to what researchers refer to as a “mega-drought” that could stretch into the next century, the mighty Colorado, which serves as a source of water and power to 25 million Americans in seven states, has been shrinking at an alarming rate – now not even consistently reaching the Pacific Ocean.

“In our film, the Colorado River becomes a metaphor for global water issues, revealing how interconnected our rivers, water supply and human actions really are,” says MacGillivray. “I hope people leave the theater ready to install a low-flow shower head and think about water in a new way.”

Grand Canyon Adventure opened in limited release March 14. For information, visit www.GrandCanyonAdventureFilm.com.

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