Feast or Famine:
California's Water Crisis

Feast or Famine: California’s Water Crisis was built around a challenge familiar to many public policy stories: how do you make a complex issue feel personal? Rather than focusing on regulations, politics, or competing interests, we centered the documentary on the people living with the consequences of California’s changing water future, from families whose wells had run dry to farmers, scientists, and community leaders searching for solutions.

The storytelling followed California’s dramatic cycle of extremes, moving from historic drought to record-breaking floods and back again. By connecting personal stories with scientific research and on-the-ground reporting, we explored how water impacts nearly every aspect of life in the Central Valley, including homes, agriculture, the economy, and the environment. The goal was not to explain who was right or wrong, but to help viewers understand the scale of the challenge and the difficult choices that lie ahead.

The result was a documentary that transformed a complicated statewide issue into a deeply local story about resilience, sustainability, and the future of California. Feast or Famine: California’s Water Crisis earned the 2024-2025 Northern California EMMY Award for Best Promotion, recognizing its ability to engage audiences with one of the most important issues facing the state.