Hope Floats in Bangladesh and at Sundance

Written by Glenn Baker, director of Easy Like Water

I’m heading off to the Sundance Film Festival Jan. 20 to pitch my film-in-progress, Easy Like Water, to broadcasters.  The film is almost ready – we’ve got an early rough cut — and I’m excited to get this story out about an ingenious sustainable design solution and its creator.

Easy Like Water is a one-hour documentary film about an innovative Bangladeshi architect who is building floating schools, equipped with solar-powered internet, in his flood-prone riverine community.

Architect Mohammed Rezwan has created floating schools outfitted with solar-powered computers in flood-prone Bangladesh.

Flooding – increasingly destructive and unpredictable – destroys more than 300 schools a year here.  Bangladesh is a real-life “Waterworld,” and Mohammed Rezwan is the country’s Noah. “If the children cannot come to school, I thought the school should go to them,” he explains.

With a concept that is elegant and homegrown, Rezwan’s organization, Shidhulai Swanirvar Sangstha, is helping his community adapt to the new climate reality – and cultivating the next generation of problem-solvers.

I grew up in South Asia, and always felt Bangladesh got short shrift when it was labeled a “basket case.”  So Easy Like Water is also the story of my personal quest to replace that label with a more nuanced portrait that depicts the developing world as a cauldron of ideas and energy – and Bangladesh as a place where the world may turn for guidance when it finds water lapping at its doorstep. “It will not be only Bangladesh that goes underwater,” asserts Nobel laureate climatologist Atiq Rahman. “New York will go underwater; London will go underwater. Tokyo will go underwater.  The question is: are we going to be wise enough to act now?”

Using “environmental Jujitsu,” Rezwan has harnessed the water to connect his community. But can this soft-spoken local hero overcome both flooding and global indifference? Easy Like Water shows the human face of the unfolding climate disaster – and tells the inspiring story of a bold innovator who is building a future that floats.

The film provides an entrée to exploring America’s biggest “head in the sand” issue –the immediacy of global warming. Through that schema it weaves together a host of related areas: design for good, climate change as a human rights crisis, girl’s education, sustainable agriculture, empowerment of the rural poor, and yes, even tigers.

Oh, and the title?  In Bangla, “Panir moto shohoj” means “no problem” or “piece o’ cake” – literally “easy like water.”

Learn more and watch the trailer at: www.easylikewater.com

Third-grade girls board a boat school on the Atrai River in Bangladesh.

Glenn Baker is an award-winning filmmaker with more than 30 documentaries broadcast on PBS. He produced and directed “STAND UP: Muslim American Comics Come of Age” for the PBS series “America at a Crossroads.” Baker grew up in India, Turkey, Pakistan, the Philippines, and Tunisia, an experience that informs his approach to making media that reflects diverse viewpoints and promotes dialogue.  

Photos courtesy Glenn Baker.