WRITTEN ON WATER, SCIENCE AS NARRATIVE - THE MAKING OF A DOCUMENTARY FILM AND THE ROLE OF THE HUMAN STORY IN SCIENCE COMMUNICATION

Written On Water focuses on the Ogallala Aquifer and examines the conflicts, politics, and economics associated with groundwater depletion in the High Plains region. The film follows farmers and a West Texas town that are struggling to survive as the wells run dry. The story highlights the tension between property rights advocates and mandated pumping limits, and delves into perspectives on water conservation, individual property rights, state policy and science, as well as the unseen fallout these issues have on the human story.

Science is a series of linkages; therefore, communicating science is best presented as a narrative story. The public’s acceptance of scientific knowledge requires more than raising the level of science literacy. Many times people are forced to choose between scientific knowledge and their human need to self-identify as members of diverse cultural communities. Polarization occurs when factual issues become entangled in antagonistic cultural meanings that transform one’s position on an issue into a badge of loyalty to a group. The solution is to separate scientific knowledge from cultural identity.

Written On Water focuses on property rights advocates who are against conservation policies that threaten a cultural identity of individualism and self-determination. But the film also highlights farmer-conservationists who embrace science and technology and pumping limits as an important element in water management decisions. Both hold self-determination as a key value, so why do two farmers who live ten miles from each other have such different approaches?

The goal in making this film is to explore individual struggles in developing sustainable water usage and to use narrative to help loosen the bonds to a collective identity that inhibit solutions to managing common resources.