The Water Front

The Water Front follows the story of residents in Highland Park, Michigan, a small city within Detroit, as they fight water privatization and astronomical water prices. Director Liz Miller, a professor, gives the residents an opportunity to share their challenges in a city with an evaporating population that is largely Black and increasingly old and poor. City management, put in place by the Governor, are on a mission to cut costs and return the city to financial stability. City employees blow the whistle on rapidly deteriorating conditions at the city’s water plant. These competing interests collide as the city’s new consultant management seeks to eke out unpaid and supposedly underbilled water costs from the city’s residents. City employees cut off water to people’s homes and struggle to keep the water plant running as deferred maintenance piles up.

Perhaps the greatest strength of this film is the confidence the viewer has that they’ve seen the full story. The level of access is tremendous. City employees Tom White, Gloria Pogue, Ron Ciccarelli of the water department each express exasperation with challenges in maintaining water infrastructure.

City management sent in by the state government are more than allowed to tell their side of the story. Ramona Pearson, an accountant, is emergency financial manager for the city, and highlights the need for financial stability. Fred Durhal, an economic development professional, complains about the state of the city. And Jan Lazar, as administrator, fills the role of antagonist, earning a particularly bad reputation from residents. And given the way Lazar comes off in the film, that bad reputation is understandable.

The stars of the film, though, are activists like Vallory Johnson. Johnson consoles those unable to pay their water bills, shares about the loss of her son, and is a powerful voice at city council meetings, interrupting proceedings to challenge the assertions of an official. For Johnson and those fighting alongside her, keeping their town’s water is tantamount to keeping their city itself. One victory is achieved on that front: defeating an attempt to privatize the city’s water plant.