An exciting first for us: A movie!

The Grab: In theatres and streaming today.   [Mother Jones + The Center for Investigative Reporting]( MoJo Reader, You’ve probably heard it before. For decades, people have said that access to water will be as important—and as likely to cause wars—as access to petroleum. “Water is the new oil,” the saying goes, and it’s not hard to believe. But it is hard to report on. Because the governments, private investors, huge corporations, and even private military companies that are part of the fight to seize our food and water resources prefer to operate in secrecy. Up until now, no one had dug deep, unearthed the classified cables, obtained the company emails, connected the dots, and followed the twists and turns. Our reporter Nate Halverson did. And what began with one story on his organized-crime beat grew into a seven-year investigative odyssey to get to the bottom of this global story. Nate discovered chilling details and made powerful enemies, but kept going (and going). And I am thrilled to write to you, the MoJo community, about the documentary film that came out of all this: [The Grab](, from CIR Studios, is rolling out in theaters and on streaming platforms today! [Watch the gripping trailer and learn how to watch the feature-length documentary here](. This is exactly why we merged with the Center for Investigative Reporting—to take big swings at the world’s most important stories. Directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaite, who previously made the amazing and impactful documentary Blackfish, [The Grab]( takes you around the globe, from China and Russia to the boardrooms of Wall Street and the farmlands of Zambia, to reveal how the wealthy and powerful are hoarding basic human necessities—food and water!—for their own gain. National security and intelligence, corporate power and global finance—this film brings it all together. It drags information that has long lived in closed-off boardrooms and sealed-off government documents out into the open for the first time. RogerEbert.com called The Grab “the ‘holy shit’ documentary of the year,” and the Hollywood Reporter added it to the pantheon of journalism films “like All the President’s Men or Spotlight, as simultaneous examinations of big, landscape-shifting stories and the necessary journey to cast light into darkness.” High praise, and truly investigative reporting at its best. It’s such an exciting time around here. Beyond today’s big film premiere, the team has been knocking it out of the park in the first few months since bringing Mother Jones, Reveal, and CIR Studios together so we can better confront [the challenges]( we face and get quality reporting to people wherever they get their news. About the only thing that isn’t going to plan is our First $500,000 fundraising campaign. With just one week and one day left, we still need to raise a quite intimidating $210,000 in [donations to pay for the journalism]( you get from us. We knew [earning your support]( would be hard right now—with so much noise to break through online, and so much dread and despair when it comes to much of what we report on. Honestly, we [weren't sure]( what to expect from our first big post-merger fundraiser going into it, but we knew if we could get you half as excited as we are about what joining forces with CIR means for our journalism and impact, we’d be okay. We don’t yet know if we’ll be okay. There have been agonizingly slow fundraising days of late, and we’re not sure how much of a [deadline-driven surge in giving]( is realistic to help us close that gap. And if we don’t get a hell of a lot closer to the $210,000 we need in the next eight days, we’re going to have to ratchet down our spending on ambitious reporting, at the worst possible time, to make sure we can get to break even by the time the year ends. It's nerve-wracking, and such an odd (human, you could say) mix of emotions seeing such powerful reporting from the team, but not seeing the [levels of support]( we thought we might see because of it. But on a fine Friday like today, and with a project like The Grab out in the world, I’m holding out hope that you’ll see the awesome potential in our work like I do. And I’m really, really hoping that [a huge deadline-driven spike in giving]( will get us where we need to be by next Saturday. [Please help if you can](. Thanks for reading, and for everything you do to show up for powerful journalism when it’s needed like never before. I hope you’ll find the time to [watch The Grab]( soon, and if you do, please let me know [what you think here](. Onward, and hopefully upward. [Monika Bauerlein, CEO] Monika Bauerlein, CEO Mother Jones [Donate](   [Mother Jones]( [Donate]( [Donate Monthly]( [Subscribe]( This message was sent to {EMAIL}. To change the messages you receive from us, you can [edit your email preferences]( or [unsubscribe from all mailings.]( For advertising opportunities see our online [media kit.]( Were you forwarded this email? [Sign up for Mother Jones' newsletters today.]( [www.MotherJones.com]( PO Box 8539, Big Sandy, TX 75755