“Reflection: A Walk with Water" at the Figge Art Museum -- February 20.
Sunday, February 20, 2 p.m.
Figge Art Museum, 225 West Second Street, Davenport IA
A lauded selection in the 2021 Tribeca Film Festival, 2021's Reflection: A Walk with Water serves as the latest presentation in River Action's QC Environmental Film Series, its February 20 premiere at Davenport's Figge Art Museum sure to demonstrate why Framework said that the work “should be screened through every Internet portal, at every bus stop, on every subway line, and in every government office, school, university, and bar."
The conditions that make life possible are rapidly changing, and in reckoning with this reality on the cusp of another dry season that may very well ravage his community, 30-year old filmmaker Emmett Brennan embarks on a remarkable journey to find stories of hope and healing. In his film Reflection: A Walk with Water, Brennan sets out to walk 200 miles next to the iconic but aging Los Angeles aqueduct, where he encounters ecological iconoclasts, indigenous voices, and permaculture designers who are challenging the status quo on how we use Earth’s most precious resource. The film delves into a profound and far-reaching look at our relationship with water, and in offering a vision for radically redesigning our lives around it, Brennan's critically acclaimed documentary takes a refreshing approach to confronting our current environmental and systematic troubles, showing how Los Angeles and other parts of California are bellwethers for change. The film features original music from multiple Grammy-winning musical artist Jacob Collier, who is also the movie's executive music Producer of the film, and in showcasing voices and stories that speak to today’s younger generations, Reflection is both a personal meditation on water and a practical road map for positive change.
Filmmaker Brennan lives in northern California, and as an environmentally conscious artist, he chooses to share stories that reveal and propel humanity towards the creation of a more beautiful world. Among Brennan's feature-length works as director and producer are To the Moon (about cyclists and cooperatives) and Inhabit: A Permaculture Perspective (about the ecological redesign of today’s agriculture), and both films have received critical acclaim, with Inhabit going on to win Audience Choice Awards at The Princeton Environmental Film Festival and The Environmental Film Festival at Yale. Brennan's plaudits have continued to amass with Reflection, with Screen Comment calling the film a "dreamlike documentary," and the Portland Press Herald deeming it "a beautifully shot and lyrical 80-minute ping-pong match between alarm and hope.”
Immediately following the screening will be a talk-back with Iowa Lakeside Laboratories Executive Director Mary Skopec. Lakeside Labs is owned by the state of Iowa and operated through the Board of Regents, and its twfold mission is to provide science classes and research opportunities for university students, and to offer outreach programs and provide services through the state universities.
Reflection: A Walk with Water will be presented at the Figge Art Museum at 2 p.m. on February 20, admission is $5, and more information on the QC Environmental Film Series is available by calling (563)322-2969 and visiting RiverAction.org.
