AIFF 2009 - Tapped, Audience Reactions

Tapped is one of those documentaries that everyone should see, but I really didn’t want to go be taught the evils of bottled water.  For one thing, I thought I knew the subject pretty well.  Second, a good feature movie would be more entertaining.  But I did the ‘right’ thing and went to the Alaska Experience Theater.  Wow.  This is a movie that should be played in all schools.  Sure, it’s an advocacy movie for the anit-bottled water folks, but as the movie makes clear, the bottled water industry makes billions a year and posts very rosy, misleading advertising about bottled water that all kids and adults see over and over again. 

Basic parts of the movie:
  • Bottled water trying to get control over public water sources and when there are droughts, they still bottle water while townspeople have to cut back.
  • Bottled water is largely unregulated and their claims to be ‘safe’ and ‘pure’ suggest that tap water isn’t.  But in truth, tap water is much more regulated than bottled water.
  • Bottled water has lots of chemicals that come from the plastic that the FDA is not protecting us from.
  • Plastic bottles are a major environmental scourge in the land fills and the oceans.
  • Making plastic bottles is a huge environmental health issues near the factories.

Here are a few comments from people who saw it:


One Day in Cochin was not a great movie, but turned out better than I expected from the trailer.

At the Bear Tooth now after dropping J at home, she has a book club meeting tonight.  Getting ready for Mount St. Elias.  The place is packed.