New Documentary Follows Three Extraordinary People Who Risked Their Lives to Save Precious Water Resources From Political and Corporate Interests in Latin America
WATER FOR LIFE tells the dramatic story of three community leaders in Latin America who resisted government and corporate plans to divert critical local water resources to mining and hydroelectric projects. Presented by Latino Public Broadcasting (LPB), directed and produced by Will Parrinello, and narrated by Diego Luna, WATER FOR LIFE premieres Monday, April 21, 2025, 10:00-11:30 p.m. ET (check local listings) on PBS, PBS.org, and the PBS app.
Despite reassurances from government officials and corporate executives that precious water from rivers and lakes would not be contaminated or siphoned off by development projects, Mapuche Chief Alberto Curamil in Chile, Lenca Indigenous leader Berta Cáceres in Honduras, and subsistence farmer Francisco Pineda in El Salvador feared the worst. Their investigations convinced them that what lay ahead was polluted water and environmental devastation.
The film’s two Indigenous protagonists, Berta Cáceres and Alberto Curamil, view themselves as frontline guardians of Mother Earth, protecting endangered water resources and traditional ways of life. In El Salvador, Francisco Pineda and his multigenerational farming family see themselves as stewards of the earth, maintaining their organic farm while promoting and teaching their methods to community members.
None of these three environmental defenders anticipated the fierce resistance and repression they would face once they began to organize opposition to the mining and hydroelectric projects encroaching on their land. Their insistence on the right to clean water became a matter of life and death.
Through interviews with business leaders, journalists and politicians, the film reveals that while those in power see the exploitation of water resources as one of the keys to economic development, they are often ignoring the legal rights of Indigenous communities and the significant impact development projects will have on the environment.
Massive mining, hydroelectric projects and industrial timber harvesting come at a significant cost to fragile ecosystems already harmed by extreme drought and/or torrential rainfall. Contaminated water runoff from mining can poison all forms of life. Industrial hydroelectric power is promoted as clean energy, but studies show it’s not always sustainable. Diverting water for industrial-scale agriculture and forestry exacerbates these conditions by depleting water tables.
WATER FOR LIFE is a story of courage and determination, betrayal and corruption, death threats and murder, as well as unexpected victories in communities and the courts. A story that begins and ends with water, it asks how economic development can grow in harmony with environmental protections. WATER FOR LIFE illuminates a growing recognition of Indigenous rights and a rising demand for corporate responsibility and environmental justice around the world.
“In Latin America, environmental defenders are putting their lives on the line to protect their resources,” says Sandie Viquez Pedlow, LPB Executive Director. “This powerful film shows us what these communities are up against and honors their courage and sacrifices.”
WATER FOR LIFE will stream simultaneously with broadcast and be available on all station-branded PBS platforms, including PBS.org and the PBS app, available on iOS, Android, Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, Android TV, Samsung Smart TV, Chromecast and VIZIO.
WATER FOR LIFE is a production of Mill Valley Film Group in association with Latino Public Broadcasting (LPB). Directed by Will Parrinello, the film is written and co-produced by Sarah Kass. The producers are Will Parrinello, Rick Tejada Flores and María José Calderón. Stephen Talbot is Senior Producer. The director of photography is Vicente Franco. The editor is María José Calderón. Original music by Christopher Hedge. The film is narrated by Diego Luna.
About the Subjects
Alberto Curamil is an Indigenous Mapuche Chief in Chile who, along with fellow Mapuche leaders and community members, fights to protect his ancestral land from corporate development that threatens their sacred river.
Berta Cáceres was an Indigenous Lenca leader in Honduras who mobilized her community to resist the construction of a hydroelectric project on the sacred Gualcarque River by the Honduran corporation DESA.
Francisco Pineda is a Salvadoran farmer who fought to stop a proposed gold mine, financed by Pacific Rim, a U.S. corporation, that would deplete precious water resources and poison the water with cyanide.
About the Filmmakers
Will Parrinello (Producer/Director) has been making award-winning documentaries for 35 years. His extensive filmography includes Movies Around The World, a short for the 89th Academy Awards (seen my 85 million people in 250 countries); Mustang – Journey of Transformation; Emile Norman – By His Own Design; Dreaming of Tibet; Little Italy; and Kerouac. With his filmmaking partner John Antonelli, Will co-produced and co-directed the multiple Emmy Award-winning series The New Environmentalists, narrated by Robert Redford. Parrinello co-produced Summer ’82 – When Zappa Came to Sicily; Sea Change; Roots of Ulu; Yen For Baseball; and Sumo Basho. Will was director of photography on the Academy Award-nominated feature documentary Tell The Truth & Run – George Seldes & the American Press and editor of PBS/POV’s In The Light of Reverence.
Rick Tejada-Flores (Producer) is a documentary filmmaker with more than 40 years of work to his credit. Among his credits are The Fight in the Fields, Cesar Chavez and the Farmworkers Struggle (PBS & Sundance Channel) and three films for PBS/American Masters: Rivera in America; Jasper Johns, Ideas in Paint; and Orozco, Man of Fire. Other films include Race is the Place (PBS/Independent Lens); The Good War and Those Who Refused to Fight It; and Low ‘N Slow – The Art of Lowriding. Rick served as producer on the Emmy and DuPont-Colombia award winning PBS series The Great Depression. His most recent film, My Bolivia – Remembering What I Never Knew (PBS World), is an intimate investigation into his family’s distinctive Bolivian roots.
Maria Jose Calderon (Producer/Editor) was producer of COVID’s Hidden Toll, the FRONTLINE/PBS/ Scripps Howard award-winning film that explores how the absence of mandatory workplace protections puts essential agricultural workers at risk. She produced and directed The Edge of the Sea, an award-winning environmental documentary for PBS. She was associate producer of Elizabeth Farnsworth’s Emmy Award nominated POV documentary The Judge and the General – The Story of Juan Guzman and of Stable Life, stories of undocumented immigrants who live and work on American racetracks. She produced the ten-part HBO series Outpost, combining experiential journalism with adventure travel reporting. Majo has a master’s degree in journalism from the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism.
Sarah Kass (Writer/Co-Producer) is a seasoned storyteller specializing in long and short form documentaries and nonfiction television. She has crafted award-winning programs that have aired on PBS, Discovery Channel, and The History Channel, and she has been the senior writer on multi-episode series. Kass has written extensively on the environment, human rights, and natural history, including multiple films for the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, Holocaust Museum Houston, Goldman Environmental Prize and for numerous national parks. She has written several films about the wrongful incarceration of Japanese Americans during WW2, including the Emmy Award-winning Betrayed: Surviving an American Concentration Camp.
Stephen Talbot (Senior Producer) is an Emmy, duPont and Peabody-award winning filmmaker who has produced, written or directed more than 40 documentaries, mainly for public television. His latest is The Movement and the “Madman” (2023) for the PBS series AMERICAN EXPERIENCE. Talbot produced and wrote 10 documentaries for Frontline/PBS and went on to be the series editor for Frontline World: Stories from a Small Planet. He was co-creator and executive producer of the PBS music specials, Sound Tracks: Music Without Borders and has served as senior producer of documentary shorts for the Center for Investigative Reporting and for ITVS / Independent Lens.
Vicente Franco (Director of Photography/Consulting Producer) has more than 100 documentary credits, including the Academy Award-nominated films The Most Dangerous Man in America – Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers, Freedom on My Mind, and The Barber of Birmingham. He co-directed, co-produced and filmed the Oscar-nominated Daughter from Danang, which won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival. Born in Madrid, Vicente has filmed extensively throughout Latin America.
Christopher Hedge (Composer/Sound Designer) is known for his performances, records, film scores, and spatial sound design. Hedge has collaborated with many unique artists and musicians, including Lila Downs, Chico Freeman, David Grisman, Paul Horn, Kronos String Quartet, and Neil Young, to blend musical forms from around the world. He is committed to creating music for films with social and environmental goals. Creating music with purpose, that reflects the world we all share, has earned him widespread recognition.