Checking In with @waterkeepermark and Swim Drink Fish Ambassador Jennifer Baichwal

Mark is Checking In with Swim Drink Fish Ambassadors about living with social distancing. Here, Jennifer Baichwal answers Mark’s questions.

Jennifer Baichwal has been directing and producing documentaries for 25 years, and her works have been played around the globe and won multiple awards. Her films include Anthropocene, Watermark, Let it Come Down, The True Meaning of Pictures, Act of God, Payback, and Manufactured Landscapes. She is a long time supporter and friend of Swim Drink Fish, and continues to have a strong presence at the organization on the Board of Directors.

MM: How are you doing?

JB: We are fine! Lucky to have a home to stay in.

MM: Where are you living and what are your daily routines?

JB: We are in Toronto. Still working remotely but at a reduced level - editing and researching. After the morning question of what to have for dinner and whether it requires taking something out of the freezer, I check the papers online for Covid and other updates, then settle into work while our daughter, who is in grade 11, does online school. When she is done around 3 p.m., we walk, run, or bike ride, then come home and do various video workouts; easy for her, less so for me! After that: dinner prep and delivering food or supplies to neighbours, reading, guitar, movies and television, and zoom visits.

MM: What are you looking forward to most?

JB: Long term: a new normal, reflecting global learning from the pandemic that social and environmental justices are deeply intertwined. Short term: warmer weather and being able to putter around in the garden.

MM: Do you believe the Covid-19 crisis will leave lasting scars on our world? If so, how?

JB: The immeasurable tragedy of so much suffering and death around the world will leave very deep and lasting scars for so many people. What is being revealed at the same time is how anthropogenic this pandemic is; the vast structural inequalities of globalization and late-stage capitalism; as well as what happens when we take our foot off the gas and nature subtly but magnificently creeps back in. We clearly have the capacity as a species to come together, love, and help each other. So this crisis is also an opportunity to resist business as usual when it ends.

MM: If you were a marine animal, what would it be?

JB: A blue whale, living off the B.C. coast.

MM: Are you currently involved in any citizen science engagement in your community? Swim Guide? Gassy? Monitoring Hub? iNaturalist? Other?

JB: I am on iNaturalist and plan to use Gassy when I get back to Georgian Bay— hopefully in a month or so. Also, I use Swim Guide ALL THE TIME and read it at leisure to explore places and beaches I want to visit someday.

Stay tuned for more in this Checking In series.
Connect with us on Twitter, @LOWaterkeeper and @waterkeepermark.