When A Town Runs Dry

Watching Joris Debeij’s affecting film about drought in a small, dry, dusty US town is enough to make your throat feel parched.

This sombre, beautifully crafted (8:15) documentary from the Los-Angeles based advertising director, repped by Hey Baby, seeks to raise awareness of the true cost of the growing planetary catastrophe that is water shortage.

Simple, yet subtley powerful, it focusses on the plights of three residents of Stratford, in California’s Central Valley, where years of drought are threatening the community’s agricultural livelihood. In voiceovers, the trio tell their sad stories against a haunting soundtrack and images of a desiccated dying town. A farmer describes having to sell the land that his grandfather bought; a high-school football coach recalls happier times when children could play in the town's canals, and a shopkeeper, an immigrant from Yemen who's been welcomed into his adopted town, relates how he is struggling now that his customers can’t afford to pay their tabs.

It was produced by Go Project, the award-winning film production arm of online multi-media educational platform Global Oneness Project.