Keepers of Bitter Waters – The Documentary

If you have looked at my other projects, such as my account on SoundCloud or the blog that I wrote about the soundscape recording project at Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge – then you may think that this area where the Mojave Desert meets the Great Basin Desert is very special to me.  For a few years I have thought about a way to incorporate my sound recordings into a documentary about the Amargosa River basin.  Then I met some folks who are deeply committed to the river’s preservation, after which the real possibility of making a film started to take shape.  In early 2018 things came together and the project got under way.  I spent most of the spring of that year shooting interviews and B-Roll, making the 200 mile round trip almost every weekend.  The Amargosa River is the only free flowing river in the Mojave Desert.  It’s a small desert river that few people know to exist, perhaps fewer still would ever imagine that water freely flows in the desert around Death Valley.  The good people of the Amargosa Conservancy and The Nature Conservancy do an excellent job of restoring and preserving the riparian habitat around the river and keeping the river’s waters flowing.  The short film illustrates the course of the river and highlights the conservation efforts of one person in particular.  The filmmaking process is rarely successful without contributions from other talented individuals.  A great amount of the success of this film is attributed to the talents of Richard Belgard, who composed and recorded the music, Jane Walsh who provided key points of narration, John McClain who mixed the sound track and owns Monster Sound And Picture audio/video services.  John really understands that a good soundtrack is what makes a film viewable.  Feel free to share the film on social media.