Interview with Elizabeth Miller, Director of The Water Front

Click here to learn more about The Water Front and to view clips of the movie.

Q: What inspired you to make this film?

A: I wanted to explore the impact of water politics on women’s lives. With a pre-production grant from Paul Robeson, I traveled to Africa, Latin America, Europe, and North America exploring water stories. I even spent a week at Suez, the big transnational water corporation in France. My explorations ended when I visited Highland Park and discovered that residents of one of the poorest cities in America had these outrageous water bills. Having grown up in Baltimore, Maryland, I felt like this could easily be my home city. That realization forced me to narrow my focus and probe deeper. I was drawn to the incredibly strong women in this community who were approaching the crisis from very different positions. (I should mention that I am working on a “water and women” channel through blip TV to present all the footage I gathered in pre-production.)

Q: Throughout the film, it was never entirely clear to me why water prices in Highland Park were so much more expensive than average water prices in the rest of the country. Were residents paying for the city’s past missteps and debt?

A: Clarifying this point was a huge challenge in making the film because the answer is not simple. The rate increases exacerbated many other problems in an old water system (leaks, inconsistent billing practices, estimated bills, etc.). So if you had been receiving an estimated bill and paying it on time for several years and then a meter reading was done indicating a leak in the system, you might get a huge bill. In fact, the rate increases were not too far off from other rate increases around the country—it’s a trend. That said, the rate increases were especially significant for Highland Park—in Highland Park, water rates come out to 4.5 percent of a monthly income where as in Lansing, the capitol, they are only .8 percent of a monthly income.

Q: What was your impression of the emergency financial manager/consultant who is brought in?