It is a dark winter night in the early 1930s. A group of six Canadian bootleggers is attempting to smuggle whiskey into the United States where Prohibition is still in full effect. When they are spotted by border authorities, the men are forced to abandon their truckload of liquor and flee into the forest where they hole up in an abandoned cabin for the night. They sit together around a small crackling fire, sharing the one bottle of whiskey they have salvaged from the operation. To pass the hours, one by one, they tell their ancestral family stories.

These richly detailed and deeply moving tales of personal struggle and survival, told by the Abenaki, Scottish, Irish and French members of the crew, are The Water of Life.

A collaboration between award-winning Montreal visual artist and filmmaker G. Scott MacLeod and internationally celebrated storyteller and writer Mike Burns, these richly detailed and deeply moving tales of personal struggle and survival, told by the Abenaki, Scottish, Irish and French members of the crew, make up the four compelling films in The Water of Life film series.