H20: The Intelligence of Water

With H20: The Intelligence of Water, filmmaker Emmanuel Itier has risen to the same standard as another documentary I recently reviewed, Food for Thought. Both these splendidly crafted documentaries achieve another in-depth look coupled with yet another timely reminder that the resources we enjoy consuming without care are far from infinite.

Itier’s focus, though, is not on food. As the title adequately pronounces, this film is about that essential element of survival. That substance which both we and this planet share a mass quantity of. Water. But more specifically, drinking water: clean, pure, refreshing, harmless, tasty, thirst-quenching and, most important of all, in limited quantities.

Long have we watched science fiction films show us frightening glimpses of destinies where the Earth’s water is non-existent, used as a source of control by those who hold abundant supplies over others, or the same way it is viewed nowadays as simply another commodity that inspires wars for wealth.

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“…about that essential element of survival: clean drinking water…”

H20: The Intelligence of Water gives us a multi-angle exposé that illuminates with regard not only to the complexities of water on a surface level but also a scientific, technological, metaphysical, and even spiritual perspective, as water has long been poetically known as the blood of nature. Even the legendary Bruce Lee’s philosophy was to be like water, to be greater at adaptability.

Fact meets pure fascination as one interviewee showcases their discovery of a type of pictogram present in frozen water following proximity to contact with words or even subconscious suggestion. The idea the natural and the technological world could somehow blend and that fluid could be used not just for hydroelectricity but for complex data transfer and storage.

Studies into better and more sustainable ways to store and purify water, as well as the newly observed health benefits of bathing and drinking the product of these devoted believers in the science. Richly diverse possibilities are open to us as a species, reshaping the way we enjoy as well as understand the myriads of ways we interact, absorb and even emotionally and psychologically bond with water.

Granted, there are elements some viewers might roll their eyes at. But it’s that kind of attitude that is the reason these films and the people depicted in them exist. It is these concerned and educated minorities that are taking notice of the world falling apart around us, whilst we busy ourselves at outdoing our neighbors as far as net worth and followers on social media.

Truth is, I hope H2O: The Intelligence of Water doesn’t suffer the fate of so many environmental docs, rising so high only to cry toward deaf ears. Nothing lasts forever, and all that was once abundant is running thin. We won’t know how good we had it until it’s over. When that day comes, I’m sure whoever’s left will care, the same as they should now, when they go to turn on their faucet.