Water Guardians / Caroline Mardok

Caroline Mardok
Brooklyn, New York, United States
 
Water Guardians, 2025
Film, 9:57 minutes
 
Water Guardians is a feature documentary that follows Black and Brown youth in New York City as they learn to swim, surf, and build relationships with water in communities historically excluded from safe access to aquatic spaces. Through intimate portraits and observational storytelling, the work captures moments of joy, vulnerability, and empowerment, situating personal experiences within broader histories of environmental inequity and climate risk. Centering community-led initiatives, mentors, and families, the film reclaims water as a site of connection, cultural identity, and resilience. In doing so, it invites audiences to understand water justice as an urgent and collective dimension of climate justice.
 
Caroline Mardok is a French-American visual artist based in Brooklyn, working across photography, public art, and documentary. Her practice explores identity, community, and environmental justice through long-form visual storytelling. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, CBS, and Artnet.