Edward Burtynsky's "Watermark" Screening

Watermark

by Jennifer Baichwal & Edward Burtynsky

feature documentary, 90 mins, 2013

Wednesday, August 5th, 2026

Doors open at 6:30PM

Screening begins at 7:30PM

Every living thing requires water. We humans interact with it in a myriad of ways, numerous times a day. But how often do we consider the complexity of that interaction? And, unless confronted by scarcity, when do we meditate on its ubiquity in creating, sustaining and enriching life?

Watermark is a feature documentary film that brings together diverse stories from around the globe about our relationship with water: how we are drawn to it, what we learn from it, how we use it and the consequences of that use. We see massive floating abalone farms off China’s Fujian coast and the construction site of the biggest arch dam in the world – the Xiluodu, six times the size of the Hoover. We visit the barren desert delta where the mighty Colorado River no longer reaches the ocean, and the water-intensive leather tanneries of Dhaka.

We witness how humans are drawn to water, from the U.S. Open of Surfing in Huntington Beach to the Kumbh Mela in Allahabad, where thirty million people gather for a sacred bath in the Ganges at the same time. We speak with scientists who drill ice cores two kilometers deep into the Greenland Ice Sheet, and roam the sublime pristine watersheds of Northern British Columbia.

Shot in stunning 5K ultra high-definition video and full of soaring aerial perspectives, this film shows water as a terraforming element and the scale of its reach, as well as the magnitude of our need and use. This is balanced by forays into the particular: a haunting memory of a stolen river, a mysterious figure roaming ancient rice terraces, the crucial data hidden in a million year old piece of ice, a pilgrim’s private ritual among thousands of others at the water’s edge.

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“[Watermark] is an immersive version of Burtynsky’s ravishing photographs: thrilling, terrifying and enraging all at once.”

Simon Houpt, The Globe and Mail

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Awards & Nominations

Winner Best Canadian Film, Toronto Film Critics Association 2014

‍Winner Best Documentary, Canadian Screen Awards 2014

‍Winner Allan King Award for Excellence in Documentary 2014 [DGC Award]