The Water Issue, OF NOTE Magazine, Spring 2016 The Water Issue | Page 50

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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