In Los Angeles, the authorities find that the tap water is contaminated due to a terrorist attack after the death of eight dwellers. The military Ritter (Jon Gries) leaves his wife Jasmine (Lindsay Price) and his daughter at home to patrol the dam with the bigoted and stressed soldier Carlton (Chris Berry). The Sikh matriarch Heera Bhatti (Shabana Azmi), who has a convenience store, increases the price of bottled water and limits the sell to two units per person. Her son Vikram Bhatti (Ajay Naidu) that works with her is not comfortable with her decision. When his Caucasian girlfriend Lillian "Lilly" (Mageina Tovah) visits him at the store, his mother gives a cold reception to her. Meanwhile the local Zach (Christopher Masterson) decides to visit his father with his cousin Bodi (Jake Muxworthy), who is a reckless and unbalanced person. However his father does not accept the Zach brings Bodi and they go to the trailer of Bodi's friend Donovan (Noah Segan). Along the three next days, their lives are entwined with tragic consequences in a environment of violence and despair."Waterborne" is an indie movie with an interesting idea of the behavior of people without water. The story shows prejudice everywhere and the conclusion is simple: take the water and people turn into animals, guided by the sense of survival and prejudice.The direction and the acting are convincing; the screenplay could have been improved but is not bad; the music score contributes with the movie. Unfortunately the camera work and the lighting are very poor. My vote is seven.Title (Brazil): "Estado de Alerta" ("State of Alert")

"Waterbourne" had a lot of potential, and it's really a shame that someone with the cash didn't pick it up and make it properly. It deals with the fears and absolute terror that come when one is deprived of one of the very necessities of life...water, and the desperate things that one will do in order to survive. As one reviewer has said before, it's like a cross between "Crash", and another disaster movie like "Earthquake" or something else equally earth-shattering.I lived through 30 days of no water during the floods of 1993 here in the Midwest of the United States (Des Moines, IA), and this film probably comes closest to demonstrating the fear that was experienced by many people during the first 24-48 hours after we realized that our water supply for a city this size was shot. Luckily for us, we didn't experience a situation like "Waterbourne" displayed for us. Our people pulled together, and worked together. We gained strength from our situation. This, unfortunately wasn't an aspect shown in this film.Not a bad movie, but not a great movie either. As previously stated by another reviewer, the camera work is very rough. It's definitely a thinking persons movie though...very dark and foreboding, so if you enjoy that type of movie then this is the one for you! I wouldn't recommend this for any person with psychological difficulties or anyone seriously disturbed by thoughts of terrorism. It has the potential to mess with your mind.

If you saw crash this movie will remind you of that (the way the main characters were connected, and the minority middle eastern guy getting his store robbed). I also thought that some of the edit work looked like Traffic. This movie has a lot of rough-spots which a little more work could've helped out a lot. You will not feel anything for any of the characters because their stories seem generic, that's not to say this film was formulaic although some parts do seem to mimic Crash. The soundtrack sounded decent except for its placement, there's this one sappy tune that plays for what seems like an eternity. One poster noted that the acting felt "wooden" and I couldn't have put it better.*Possible Spoilers* Now for the good points. In this post 9/11 era, domestic terrorism hasn't gotten that much attention which this movie brings in it's own form. Although this movie went for realism, the use of derogatory by the younger army officer did seem a bit forced as well as the guy who burst in anger for not getting all his water. The whole racism thing could've been better but at least they didn't butcher it that much. Another poster suggested that this movie brings attention concerning security with water supply, but in effect this could also be taken to mean any kind of bio-chem attack.Overall, this movie was half good half bad. It had its moments and almost as if on purpose right after something that made no sense.

I just saw Waterborne about 20 minutes ago at the Tallgrass Film Festival in Wichita, KS. I was drawn to the movie because I heard that Dredg (most awesome band practically ever; not a bold statement at all) composed the score. The movie and the music blew me away. So many emotional elements was encompassed. I thought that Ben Rekhi did a great job targeting instinctual drives, discrimination, love, ethical dilemmas, religion, morals and more. Awesome movie!!!! I'd totally watch this again on the big screen. Dredg's music was awesome too. I loved when Dredg's powerfulness was blaring during the night of the first day (I don't feel that I'm being a spoiler by saying this). That was my favorite instrumental moment; very awesome. Now I'm ready for the DVD/soundtrack to come out. A+++++++++++++++++