WATER FIRST
Stories of Water
The Challenge
Water First is an organization working to end the water crisis in Indigenous communities across Canada. The crisis itself is well documented — boil water advisories, broken infrastructure, decades of government inaction. But documentation wasn't the problem. The people most affected had been reduced to statistics, and statistics don't move people to act. Water First needed stories that could make the crisis personal — not through data, but through the lived experience of people doing something about it.
Our Approach
Both films were donated to Water First as part of Untold's 1% for the Planet commitment — work made not as a commercial engagement but as a contribution to an organization doing work we believe in. We made two films, for two different programs, in two different years. They share a subject — water — but they're built on different questions.
Paige asks:
What does it look like when someone decides to become part of the solution? Paige Manitowabi is a Water Walker from Wiikwemkoong Unceded Territory on Manitoulin Island. She carries Traditional Knowledge of water passed from her mother, and she trained as a water treatment operator through Water First's Drinking Water Internship. The film doesn't explain the water crisis. It shows you someone doing something about it — and trusts the audience to feel the gap between what she's building and what should already exist.
Kelsey asks:
What does water mean to the person whose whole life is shaped by it? Kelsey Roy is a Land Guardian and graduate of Water First's Environmental Water Internship. The film follows her as she shares her experience in the program and what it gave her — skills, confidence, and a deeper connection to the water she's committed to protecting. The film was made as Water First's year-end giving campaign: less about the crisis, more about the person who makes the work worth supporting.
The Films
Two programs within the same organization. Two characters with different relationships to water and to their communities. Together, they show the range of the work — and the range of what documentary storytelling can do within a single client relationship.
01
Paige
Kelsey
02
BTS
Recognition
Paige
Nominated — 1% for the Planet Summit Awards, Partnership category Official Screening — Confluence Santa Fe 2025, Center for Contemporary Arts, September 11
One of Water First's top-performing videos, with nearly 300% more views than their channel average. The launch post on Instagram drew well above average engagement, including comments like "This short film is absolutely breathtaking!!!"
The film contributed to a 250% increase in program applications for Water First's Drinking Water Internship.
Behind the Story
There's a version of the Paige film that would have been easier to make. Put the crisis up front. Show the broken pipes. Interview the politicians. Layer in the statistics. That version would have been effective and forgettable.
The version we made is harder. It asks the audience to spend time with one person, in her community, learning what she's learning. It doesn't explain the water crisis — it shows you what it looks like when someone decides to do something about it.
The Kelsey film is built on a simpler question but not a smaller one. When someone asks Kelsey what water means to her, the answer is the whole story. We just had to be there to hear it.
"Working with Untold Storytelling was amazing. They were very flexible and highly respectful of culturally sensitive aspects, and were a blast to spend a week with during production. And the end result was a beautiful and professional film that highlights aspects of our work in a stunning new way. I highly recommend them to anyone with a story to tell." — Ami Gopal, Director of Development and Communications, and Mason Prout, Communications Manager, Water First
Client:
Water First
Subject
Paige Manitowabi (Wiikwemkoong Unceded Territory)
Kelsey Roy
Programs:
Drinking Water Internship
Environmental Water Internship
Disciplines:
Journalism
Filmmaking
