#815) Water and Power (1989)

You can currently watch “Water and Power” here.

The Plot: How the hell do I describe “Water and Power”? Well, it’s about 55 minutes long, and it centers around Owens Valley, L.A.’s primary water source, and how the area around it has become a mini-desert. It was directed by legendary experimental filmmaker Pat O’Neill, who describes it “a landscape film that became animated by the beginnings of human stories”. There’s plenty of timelapse photography and photoscopic effects conveying the valley’s overall decay and…yeah that’s about it.

Why It Matters: The NFR praises the film as “a brilliant examination of water in all its forms”.

But Does It Really?: As you’ve probably already guessed, I don’t have much to say about “Water and Power”. There’s some beautiful compositions throughout, and the whole thing gave me “Koyaanisqatsi” vibes, I just wish I knew what it all meant. It’s not so much a “Staring at Water” movie as it is a “Staring at a Lack of Water” movie. “Water and Power” is the kind of experimental film that should be playing on a loop in a museum somewhere, where the film can be given proper context and O’Neill can be given his due as an artist, but watching it as a standalone feature was a confusing experience for me, especially given my lack of knowledge of Los Angeles. I’ll give “Water and Power” a pass as another NFR entry that shines a light on L.A., but that’s about as generous as I’m feeling.

Shout Outs: There’s a handful of silent film clips interspersed throughout the film, and I’m pretty sure one of them is from “The Last Command”.

Everybody Gets One: Raised in Inglewood, Pat O’Neill became interested in filmmaking while studying photography in art school. Allmost all of Pat O’Neill’s films center around Los Angeles, starting with his 1963 short “By the Sea”, filmed on location at Muscle Beach. Although O’Neill has talked at length about making “Water and Power”, he’s not quite sure where the initial idea for the film came from: “I grabbed it, wherever I got it.” Oh, and in keeping with a longtime NFR tradition, Pat O’Neill is a UCLA graduate.

Seriously, Oscars?: No Oscar nomination, though “Water and Power” did win the Sundance Grand Jury prize in 1990. 1989’s Oscar winner for Best Documentary Feature was fellow NFR entry “Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt”.

I realized while writing this post that I’ve never actually compiled a list of the “Staring at Water” movies that I reference every so often on this blog, and after almost 10 years it’s time to do something about that. Here are the NFR entries that are either fully or in part lingering shots of water with little narration or context: