Water Justice and Media Lab End of Season Celebration
November 14, 2026 @ 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm EST
Our end-of-season Water Justice Lab celebration will feature films on local ecology and environmental issues, including the premier of “Source to Estuary: What the Water Remembers,” a short documentary created by Media Lab fellows. Water Justice Lab (WJL) is a collaborative program between Riverkeeper and NATURE Lab. This year youth fellows were joined by a youth media team, made possible by a successful spring ‘26 fundraiser. Alongside this youth-produced film we’ll share two other short films connected to local ecology and water: The Nature of Nature: Biodiversity in the Hudson Valley, a 2025 film featuring local organizations like the Hudson Taconic Land Trust and Outdoor Promise, and We are Water, a film by Talking Rivers, an organization that helps humans listen to the voice of rivers and honor the Rights of Nature. The films will be followed by a panel discussion with local environmental advocates and researchers. This event will be preceded by an open house at NATURE Lab.
This event is co-sponsored by iEar Presents! and Solar Sal Boats.
This annual celebration of Water Justice Lab (WJL) celebrates another season of water testing and education around environmental justice. Media Lab (ML) fellows documented the 6 week summer Source to Estuary program, producing a film which will be presented at this celebration event.
Through our water quality monitoring program and related programming, WJL educates communities about water justice, aides in developing the advocacy capacity of North-Central Troy, and strengthens a network of environmental justice advocates focused on water issues within the Hudson River (Mahicannituck) Watershed.
Panelists
Jim Bonesteel is the Executive Director of Hudson Taconic Lands, which is focused on conservation through community in Rensselaer County. Jim started as a volunteer and now leads a team of 11 and growing, working with them to think big and outside the box to bring the organization’s mission to life. Jim lives with his wife Jill in Stephentown. His three grown children grew up playing in the woods of the Rensselaer Plateau. A seasoned outdoor adventurer, he loves hiking, backpacking, and canoeing with his family.
Maria Florencia Pérez is New York Program Lead and Education Coordinator at the Environmental Law Center. She is a lawyer focused on sustainability and environmental policies. She has collaborated with government agencies, international organizations, and private entities on initiatives involving public procurement, sustainable supply chains, and biodiversity conservation in Latin America. She holds a Master’s in Public Administration in Environmental Science and Policy from Columbia University, a Master’s in Environmental Policy, Law, and Management from Universidad Austral, and a Law degree from the University of Buenos Aires.
Tamara Jolly is the Community Initiatives Manager for the Adirondack Diversity Initiative, where she brings together her expertise in biology, ecology, teaching, and DEI to foster more inclusive and resilient communities across the Adirondacks. She is a passionate advocate for making nature accessible and inclusive for everyone, broadening access and fostering a sense of belonging in nature for marginalized communities. While on sabbatical from teaching high school science in Baltimore City, MD, Tamara attended SUNY Environmental Science & Forestry’s Ranger School, where she fell in love with the Adirondacks and was honored to graduate as valedictorian. When she is not working, you will find her outdoors birding, soaking up the arts, or adventuring with her husband and daughter.
Lee Willbanks is a co-founder and board president of Talking Rivers, a not-for-profit advocating for the rights of St. Lawrence River / Kaniatarowanénhne, its tributaries, their watersheds & the human & other-than-human beings who inhabit them. An environmental lawyer with a Masters in Public Administration Lee served as counsel and chief of staff to a New York State Senator whose district included the eastern shore of Lake Ontario and most of the Upper St. Lawrence River. Subsequently, as the Upper St. Lawrence Riverkeeper, he, with others, advocated for a more environmentally appropriate flow regime for Lake Ontario and the River. Lee also serves as Co-chair of the Steering Committee for the St. Lawrence River Institute’s River Strategy and as an external advisory committee member to the Institute’s Great River Rapport.
Cling Malaco (moderator) is Water Justice Lab’s 2026 Youth Mentor and a Ph.D. student in Science and Technology Studies at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Cling specializes in global health policy, governance, and sociogerontechnology. As a Fulbright scholar, she studied communications and public health at the State University of New York at Albany and is a global health practitioner with experience in both national and international development organizations. Growing up in the Philippines, surrounded by nature, she cultivated a lasting interest in how humans, technologies, environments, and nonliving organisms are interconnected in shaping health and well-being. She brings this interdisciplinary perspective to WJL, working with young people and the community to envision healthier and more equitable futures.
Films
Source to Estuary: What the Water Remembers is a short documentary produced by the 2026 Media Lab team. It explores local water ecology through the lens of The Sanctuary’s Water Justice Lab Program.
Produced by Talking Rivers, We are Water: Rights, Roles and Responsibilities shows how we, humans, can honor our responsibilities towards the waters that sustain us. At Talking Rivers, they do this by protecting the rights of rivers and all their relations. The video features the voices of the community organizer Blake Lavia, the artist Iakonikonriiosta, the environmental lawyer Lee Willbanks, the educator Cathy Shrady and the Potsdam NY town representative Lynn Hall.
An ode to the remarkable variety of life in the Hudson Valley, The Nature of Nature: Biodiversity in the Hudson Valley celebrates the living fabric of the region’s unique landscape. From high elevation forests to the globally rare freshwater tidal marshes along the Hudson estuary, the 30-minute documentary film captures the beautiful, the complex, the familiar, and the unknown…guided by the plants, animals, and people that call the Hudson Valley home.
The Nature of Nature was directed by Laura deNey of Flicker Filmworks and produced by Laura Heady of the Hudson River Estuary Program, with funding by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation through the New York State Environmental Protection Fund in partnership with NEIWPCC. The film is an official selection in the 2026 London Nature Films Annual Festival and a nominee in the 2026 New York State Emmy Awards.
Partners and Sponsors
Riverkeeper protects and restores the Hudson River from source to sea and safeguards drinking water supplies, through advocacy rooted in community partnerships, science and law. They do this through guarding your waterways, defending clean drinking water, and finding solutions.
Solar Sal Boats create useful, fun, and practical solar boats that simply work.
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