World Water Film Festival Chicago Water Week Films & Panels

At a time when the world feels overwhelmed by overlapping crises, where do we find the hope to keep fighting? We find it in the people living in the solutions. Join us on Monday, May 4, for "Go with the Flow: Where the Water Grows," an immersive, free Chicago Water Week event produced by the World Water Film Festival hosted by Emmanuel Pratt at the visionary Sweet Water Foundation.

This is not just another film screening and panel discussion about the problems of water contamination - it is a celebration of the communities, advocates, and storytellers who are forcing change and healing the earth and communities.

With powerful storytelling through a series of short documentary and experimental films, and one feature, How to Poison a Planet, this is a rare, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to meet powerful voices in global water advocacy today including:

Meet Mohamed Salem Mohamed Ali, a 2024 honoree of The World Around Young Climate Prize, who is traveling to Chicago from the Smara refugee camp in Algeria. Mohamed will share the extraordinary story of his water-recycling desert garden — proving that the most innovative climate solutions are emerging from communities forced by necessity to find a way.

Be inspired by Emmanuel Pratt, an urban designer creating a model of resident-driven community development in neighborhoods that have suffered the effects of long-term disinvestment. Pratt is co-founder and executive director of the Sweet Water Foundation (SWF), a nonprofit organization based on Chicago’s South Side that engages local residents in the cultivation and regeneration of social, environmental, and economic resources in their neighborhoods.

Hear from Michael and Nora Strande of Minnesota, the tireless parent and daughter advocates who, alongside their late daughter and sister Amara, fought the chemical giants to pass "Amara’s Law" in Minnesota — one of the strictest bans on "forever chemicals" (PFAS) in the nation. The Strandes carry Amara’s powerful legacy forward, offering a deeply emotional and inspiring call to action to demand a cleaner, safer future.

Nels Lindquist is the Visual Storytelling Manager with the Wisconsin Conservation Voters. Learn how this organization is engaging voters to protect Wisconsin's environment.

World Water Film Festival Founder Robert Strand will guide you through the program and share plans on how WWFF will be catalyzing water action through film at the 2026 UN Water Conference this December in the UAE - leveraging the power of storytelling and film to help reach the UN Strategic Development Goals.

Through a curated lineup of award-winning documentary and experimental films, including the internationally acclaimed feature How to Poison a Planet, we will explore how storytelling and film - from UN Water’s ‘International Groundwater Resource Assessment Center’ animations and experimental 16mm art to investigative journalism - drives awareness and changes policy to inspire action.

Between the screenings, step outside the theater for a guided walking tour of the Sweet Water Foundation’s Common|Wealth campus to see regenerative urban ecology in action. Come for the films. Stay for the tour. Leave inspired by the people who are turning the tide.

Info: Join us for a two-hour film screening and discussion exploring the hidden impacts of industrial farming on water supplies. We pivot from the crisis of contaminated groundwater to the hope of regeneration—highlighting indigenous farming, urban ecology, and "sponge cities" that restore water quality and build climate resilience.
Special Guest: Meet Mohamed Salem Mohamed Ali, 2024 honoree of The World Around Young Climate Prize. Traveling from the Smara refugee camp in Algeria, Mohamed shares the extraordinary story of his water-recycling desert garden, proving that true climate innovation emerges from communities forced by necessity to find a way.
Featured Short Films:
• A Garden in the Desert, Algeria, from The World Around
• The Right to Know, Wisconsin
• Dji Mansa: Bambara for 'Water Masters' from AFR'EAU in Mali
• The Hōteo Sediment Reduction Project from Water New Zealand
• Plantando Raíces en Lago Uru Uru, Bolivia, from The World Around
• Sponge Cities Clip from Our Blue World

Info: Step outside the screening room to experience regenerative neighborhood development in action. Emmanuel Pratt and the Sweet Water Foundation team will lead attendees on a guided tour of The Common|Wealth, a bio-dynamic campus spanning six city blocks that has transformed vacant lots into a thriving urban ecology center.

Info: The day concludes with a deep dive into one of the greatest environmental disasters of our time: PFAS "forever chemicals" contaminating drinking water worldwide. This segment showcases four powerful forms of storytelling that drive awareness and demand accountability.
An animated explainer (Groundwater Explained: PFAS) maps the invisible path of forever chemicals into our bodies. An experimental 16mm art film (Good Neighbors Care) transforms DuPont's pollution of North Carolina's Cape Fear River into a visceral, haunting meditation. A journalistic documentary (Stella, Wisconsin) puts a human face on one of the nation's most contaminated communities. And the award-winning feature How to Poison a Planet, featuring Mark Ruffalo, follows the legal battle against 3M.
Panel:
• Michael & Nora Strande — Advocates behind Minnesota's landmark "Amara's Law"
• Kate E. Hinshaw — Filmmaker & cinematographer; director of Good Neighbors Care
• Nels Lindquist — Filmmaker, Wisconsin Conservation Voters

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Host or Publisher Robert Strand