>>Male Presenter: Thank you for joining us for an exclusive screening of "Last Call of
the Oasis."
And we are joined here today with the director of the film.
I'd like to introduce to you, Jessica Yu.
[applause]
>>Jessica Yu: Thanks, guys.
Thanks so much.
And I would love if you have any questions.
As you can see, the film kinda covers a lot of ground.
So, I imagine there could be a lot of different questions as well.
Anybody have anything?
Yes, please.
>>MALE AUDIENCE MEMBER #1: Well, us being here in California, specifically Bay Area,
which probably has a pretty good regime of enforcement--at least that's the public perception
among Bay Area people--that we've got the strong management districts and water is--.
Although, we try to conserve, it's not like a local problem--at least that's the Bay Area
perception.
Could you talk about that?
>>Jessica Yu: Sure.
Well, what's interesting is that everything about water is connected, right?
So, you might have a strong water district in one area, but if there's a lot of water
pressures--.
You know, there's the chapter in the film that's about water in California in agriculture.
And I just remember being--.
I mean, I grew up in Northern California and I remember growing up.
We were very aware of drought, but drought was always something that felt like it was
a periodic thing.
We have a really dry year.
Then you have the bucket in the shower and you got the low-flow shower head that just
feels like someone's spitting on you.
[chuckles] We did those kind of measures.
And what was really stunning to me working on this film was seeing that we have a lot
of the same problems.
But the time frame in which really dire consequences will be happening is really short.
So in the film, we talk about California.
What people are taking into account is the use and reliance on ground water.
So, in agriculture, hey, you know, you get low rain fall that year, we're just digging
deeper into our ground water sources.
And the tricky thing is no one knows how much is left.
You can tell how much is taken out, but anytime you're taking water out of the ground then,
of course, the quality of water gets compromised.
And then a lot of this is water that's just not being replenished at the rate that it's
been taken out or not replenished at all.
So that's the real big mystery.
So, when we had Jay Famiglietti, who's the professor there who is using NASA technology
to study levels of ground water, when he said that the aquifer under the Central Valley,
where a quarter of our produce is grown, maybe there's low end 60 years that those aquifers
could be depleted, I just remember feeling like, walking out there a little stunned thinking,
"This isn't far off.
This is a generation."
So, I think that's the wake-up call of all of California.
Yes.
Questions?
Hi.
>>MALE AUDIENCE MEMBER #2: Absolutely beautiful to watch and look at.
And I learned a lot about this, so thank you very much.
>>Jessica Yu: Thank you.
>>MALE AUDIENCE MEMBER #2: I do understand, I mean, most projects like this there's only
so much you can put in.
So, is there anything that you really look back at putting so much work into this going,
"I wish this could've gone in there, but it just can't?"
>>Jessica Yu: That's a really good question.
OK.
So, two things.
One is that--.
And actually, I don't know if I wish we could've put it in there, but a big issue that is not
really covered in the film is the whole area of water law.
I mean, this is one problem.
You could talk about conservation.
You could talk about changing agricultural practices.
But the truth is, and especially in the United States, from state to state, the ownership
of water and how people can access it--it's different in different regions.
And anytime you talk about taking someone's water rights away, it's a huge mess.
Like, Robert Glennon, who's one of the experts in the film, he talked about how--.
He said if you want to be employed for the rest of your life easily, go into water law.
It's gonna be--.
And it's, that's--.
I think it's scary because, even apart from politics, I don't know legally how you can
stop things from being gummed up in the courts when the time frame is so small.
The other thing that I wanted to put in the film was the section on Singapore.
When we first went to Singapore, I was interested in trying to make more of a connection between
water supply--quantity--and quality.
And so, this whole issue of sanitation was really big for us.
So, we went there to go to the World Toilet Summit.
[laughter] And it sounded like such an exciting event.
And they have all this new toilet technology.
A lot of it is about waterless toilets, but it's also addressing the need for greater
sanitation because you have two point six billion people around the world who don't
have access to sanitation.
And so, you have a lot of water-borne disease.
You have pollution of water resources.
And it's a terrible problem.
So, we filmed with a wonderful Singaporean former businessman named Jack Sim.
And he calls himself Mr. Toilet.
And he's got such a great story because when he turned 40, he decided--.
He had 14 companies and he had this epiphany where he thought, "What am I doing this for?
I could just keep doing this, but what's my life about?"
So, he decided to look at where was a cause that had the greatest need.
And he ended up turning to sanitation because it's such a taboo.
So, that's what he's been doing for years.
We filmed a little segment about him.
Couldn't fit it into this film, but we cut a short that was just at Sundance and it was
called "Meet Mr. Toilet."
So, that one had a happy ending because we were able to do something separate with it.
Yes.
>>MALE AUDIENCE MEMBER #3: Hi.
Jessica, thank you for sharing "Last Call at the Oasis" with us here at Google.
I was curious.
The film is coming out in May, being released by Participant Media.
>>Jessica Yu: Actually, the film is being released by ATO, which is a distribution company
called Art Takes Over.
Participant was more of the funding entity, but everyone's working together to get the
word out.
>>MALE AUDIENCE MEMBER #3: OK.
Great.
So, Participant is well-known for other provocative documentaries like "Inconvenient Truth," "Food,
Inc.," and I was curious as to what type of action are you hoping people to take after
watching this film?
Is it largely to inform the public or are you hoping to actually influence some of these
water issues?
>>Jessica Yu: OK.
That's an excellent question.
And actually, if you have more specific questions along those lines, Lynn Hirshfield from Participant
is here.
She's sitting at the back table there.
Well, the interesting thing about water is it's such a multi-faceted issue.
And at the end, people said, "Well, are you gonna have a list of things that people can
do, actions you can take?"
And it's hard because there's actually--.
It's a strength in that there are so many different things that we could do.
So, I think it can look like a pretty desperate picture until you realize that because most
of us really aren't doing too much to address water, that it if everyone were to do something,
we could really make a big difference.
So, the point is, I think, that what we were looking at is changes that you could do on
the micro level--swapping out your lawn, taking shorter showers, getting more efficient appliances--to
the macro level of trying to affect policy and making changes like, in your own companies
or places of business.
And there's international issues.
So, there's so many different levels.
And there was a good quote I read the other day, which was, "There's no silver bullet.
Think silver buck shot."
I thought that was such a great quote because I think the tendency is to want, "OK, what
do we need to do and have one solution."
With water, it's so connected to everything.
It's hard to point to like, change a light bulb or one prescription like that.
>>MALE AUDIENCE MEMBER #3: Great.
I have one other question.
It's a different topic.
But is that reclaimed water product that Jack Black was hawking, is that actually real or
was it just a comedy bit?
>>Jessica Yu: The whole thing was an experiment.
We weren't suggesting that recycled water should be sold as a bottled water product.
But because it has such a negative perception, we thought, "Let's try to give it all the
advantages of a bottled water product."
So, it's funny 'cause people afterwards, it's almost succeeded too well.
They were like, "Where can we buy the recycled water?"
But it was just to see what does it take to overcome the perception of what's good for
you and what's not.
I mean, there's that incredible irony that it's probably the purest water that you can
get out there, but everyone is just so turned off by it.
In Orange County, where we got the recycled water for the experiment, they liked some
of the ideas so much that they want to use that in their own campaigns to help spread
the word.
So, we're hoping that that is one of the concrete advances that the film can help move forward.
So, we're hoping that that's something that communities can use to help their people embrace
that idea.
>>MALE AUDIENCE MEMBER #3: Yeah.
It would be a funny film tie-in that at the end of the screening, you can go and try out
some of this water yourself.
>>Jessica Yu: We've been thinking about that.
I still have a whole bunch of Porcelain Springs in the office.
[laughter]
I tried it actually when we were in Singapore.
What they do, it's sort of interesting.
They bottle it and any sort of like you go to a public meeting or place where there are
government officials, and they just serve that there.
So, they get a lot of free publicity of, everyone's drinking what they call New Water.
And we had it there and it's funny.
It almost tastes--.
You know how distilled water feels different on the tongue?
It's a little, almost like dry, which is a strange sensation.
It's like that, but just incredibly clean.
Thanks.
Anybody else?
>>FEMALE AUDIENCE MEMBER #4: Hello.
>>Jessica Yu: Hi.
>>FEMALE AUDIENCE MEMBER #4: Thanks so much.
That was really interesting.
I enjoyed watching that.
I had a question about water filters.
So, I don't think that came up too much, but one of my thoughts was, "Well, if I put a
water filter on my tap, that might alleviate some of the issues and I don't have to have
bottled water."
What do you think about that?
Do you think that's something that's--?
I know a lot of people already do that.
So what are your thoughts and do you think that that's a way to help solve the issue?
>>Jessica Yu: Sure.
I mean, I'm not a water filter expert, but Peter Gleick, who is one of our main experts--.
I remember everybody--.
It still comes down to feeling like, "Well, what do we drink?"
And he said he's asked that question all the time.
He generally says that--I'm speaking for Peter here--but if you live in a municipality, your
water is tested a lot more than your bottled water would be.
So, I think bottled water as being safer is a bit of a fallacy.
But he said if you're worried about your water--sometimes people think their water tastes funny--it's
probably their pipes.
Put a filter on the end and that can certainly help with taste.
And if you're concerned about other things in the water--.
I think the issue though of the new contaminants is something that is not really addressed
by either of those processes very well.
So, that's where the very intensive processing--the recycled water--goes through is more successful
at removing things than what we generally have out of the tap or in bottled water products.
>>FEMALE AUDIENCE MEMBER #4: Yeah.
And the other thought was would the filters even catch a lot of the stuff that's newer,
contaminants that were found.
[chuckles]
>>Jessica Yu: You know, when they talk about trace pharmaceuticals and parts per trillion,
like the guy at the sewage plant says, "You know, we're state of the art and this is not
what we're built for."
So, that's something that we need to do to address in new infrastructure.
But it's weird, right, because you see in the film, we don't wanna pay for--.
It's very unpopular the idea of "let's pay for a new switch treatment plant."
I mean, it's just politically very difficult to get that point across.
But if you look at how much we're already paying for bottled water, we're spending that
money.
We're just not, we're spending it individually.
It's like the difference between wanting to improve public schools and sending your kids
to private school.
I think it feels more immediate for people.
So, if they can do it, they just pay for it there.
But I think if we would upgrade the entire system, we could do better for everybody.
>>MALE AUDIENCE MEMBER #5: You talk about the conservation and the effectiveness of
those measures.
So, I just maybe wonder if all economics on water is right, for example the price of the
water is the correct, maybe in the future, do you see we pay like, three or four times
of the both price of either residential or agriculture?
>>Jessica Yu: Oh, that's a great question.
And actually that's something, that's a point that I wish we could have made clearer in
the film.
We had it in there for a while, but OK.
In Singapore, where they've really managed their water problems extremely well, and it's
public education and it's also like just forcing them, "This is what we're doing."
And they have a lot of--.
They're always developing new technology.
Well, the cost of their water is passed on to the public there.
So, if you ask the average Singaporean the cost of their water bill, they'll probably
know.
In the US, the average person on the street, it just doesn't really register.
So, I think that if you pass along the cost of the water to the public, they'll conserve
more and they'll be more aware of it.
I think it's inevitable that some pricing will have to change, but again, it's politically
extremely unpopular, especially in this country.
Like, in Fresno, where--.
I mean, that's Central Valley, it was only last year that they even had water meters
put in.
So, people had no idea how much water they were using.
And there was a huge protest when they finally said, "You know, guys, we actually should
figure out how much water we're using and make people pay for it."
So, anybody have anything else?
And afterwards, if you have any questions for me or Lynn, we're here.
And you can also look at, we have the social action part of the Participant umbrella--it's
called Take Part--and there's a lot of resources and information in there.
So, thanks so much again and thank you, Matt and Jennifer.
>>Male Presenter: Let's give Jessica a round of applause.
[applause]