The Grab

This is a high quality production with an easy to follow narrative weaving the connective lines between food and water scarcity and those seeking to control it.

Perhaps one of the reasons that I was so engaged, is because unbeknowst to me before I watched it, a large portion of the story focuses on an issue in my state that I'm very well aware of. Our former Republican governor approved a foreign company to farm land and use unlimited water for free, and send the product back to their home country. This is one of the reasons he was voted out of office. The new Democratic governor cancelled their contract, but in the ensuing years, the foreign country drained the aquifer empty. Amusingly, in the epilogue, Nathan takes credit for the cancellation, without mentioning the change of political power. Everyone in the state was well aware of what happened, it was extensively reported.

It's a reminder to stay politically aware of the politicians that are aligned with corporations and foreign governments who are selling our food and water security away.

Being told this had something related to Blackfish made me think this doc must have some weight. 10 mins in I thought I was missing something. 20mins in I thought I just hadn't quite slotted in to the information being presented. 30 mins in I realise they are presenting a lot of information like a graph, with no explanation of why it is going up or down and what the x or y is. 40 mins in I'm thinking why I have wasted 40mins of my life. I don't even know what this film is trying to tell me because it's so bad. This thing over here is a thing but another thing is doing this and that thing has recorded it. So water is really important but we don't have any. I even tried getting stoned halfway through to see if it made more sense but it didn't. And now I'm 2 hours older.

A recent problem that has been created by the multitude of generic flavored Netflix and Amazon Prime docs is that flair and panache have gone MIA. In seeking out truths and exposing unflattering wares, filmmakers of today seemed to have forgotten there are two equal and important parts when making a successful documentary - education AND entertainment. Not that Director Gabriela Cowperthwaite isn't one to provide stark reveals (she was behind the ever-so-effective "Blackfish"), but in the case of her latest "The Grab" it simply boils down to being boring. There's so much info, so much minutiae and so much dark detail that there's simply no room for audience engagement. So while it's fascinating to see previously unknown info about why Russia invaded Ukraine (not surprised in the slightest) and joyous to expose those who use the weak and unknowing for their own enrichment simply because they can (up yours Erik Prince!), without a sense of style to elevate such a big bevy of important material nobody is going to see this film. Presenting a lesson of hard and cold facts are only half the course - it's the ability to also grab the audience's attention that's absent from this class.

If you want to spend an hour and 42 minutes listening to Americans being shocked by capitalism this could be for you. The problem is that these Americans are only really being listen to in this case because it is foreigners doing capitalism to them for once instead of the other way around, which has been the norm for the last 75 years. The whole thing stinks of hypocrisy considering America has forced open markets and its own brand of fake globalism on the rest of the world for 75 years but now when the world does it back to America it has to be painted as something sinister. Of course it is incredibly sinister. Capitalism is one of the major roots of all Modern evil. But to be fine with it when it's American capital sucking the lifeblood from the rest of the world but then to suddenly develop a conscience when it's foreign capital sucking the lifeblood from America, seems beyond hypocritical and as a result the narrative just doesn't hold.

This is an amazing documentary. The courage that the journalists have in tackling this subject, deserves respect.

Once you see this all the way through, then you begin to put some of the pieces together as far as what is happening globally.

Remember when the Americans attacked Iraq and everyone said that they were just doing it for the oil? Well 20 or 30 years on now, what are the reasons for war these days? Think about the real reasons why Russia, China and Iran are being so destabilizing. And why don't ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox news report on the these issues?

Ultimately the motivations of those in power is to first maintain that power and second try to gain more power.

That is why we need real journalists and that is also why some rich people spend so much effort trying to discredit real journalists by calling them fake news etc.

Sunlight is the best antiseptic, so let's drag the truth into the light. ;)