Shalini Kantayya: Who Controls Water Controls Life
By Vasiliki Eugenis
editor’ s note
Shalini Kantayya is a Brooklyn-based filmmaker, eco-activist, and educator who’ s passionate about using storytelling to get to the heart of human rights issues. A self-professed sci-fi geek, she’ s fixated on new technologies and their impact on the near future. She runs her own production company, 7th Empire, and has been a TED Fellow, Sundance Fellow, Fulbright Scholar, and finalist on FOX’ s reality T. V. show On the Lot.
It’ s easy to see why she’ s gained such widespread recognition. Whether it’ s exploring the alien nature of school lunches or profiling a sustainable ocean farmer, Kantayya blends boldness and vulnerability in her narratives to expose harsh truths. You can’ t look away— and you don’ t want to.
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If you’ re talking about gender equality, you’ re talking about water. If you’ re talking about the rights of women and girls in the developing world, you’ re talking about water.
Her 2012 short sci-fi film, A Drop of Life, is Kantayya’ s commentary on the continual failure of water systems in India where well-intentioned projects from the West abound. It is also what happens when water is no longer treated as sacred but entirely as a commercial endeavor.( The film is available on Netflix and IndieFlix.)
By showing the impact of the water crisis on the day-to-day of those most affected, A Drop of Life sets out to reclaim water as a fundamental human right. It is a foreboding tale of what the future may hold if we’ re not careful. In Kantayya’ s view, the circumstances are dire.
— Shalini Kantayya
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