The River and the Wall

The River and the Wall

Monday, May 13, 2019 - 6:30pm to 8:15pm
  • Library Hall
It's a river before it's a border — the new film that debuted at SXSW 2019 from conservation filmmaker Ben Masters

The River and the Wall follows five friends on an immersive adventure through the unknown wilds of the Texas borderlands as they travel 1,200 miles from El Paso to the Gulf of Mexico on horses, mountain bikes and canoes.
 
Award-winning director Ben Masters (best known for his feature documentary Unbranded) realizes the urgency of documenting the last remaining wilderness in Texas as the threat of new border wall construction looms ahead. Masters recruits NatGeo Explorer Filipe DeAndrade, ornithologist Heather Mackey, river guide Austin Alvarado, and conservationist Jay Kleberg to join him on the two-and-a-half-month journey down 1,200 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border.  They set out to document the borderlands and explore the potential impacts of a wall on the natural environment, but as the wilderness gives way to the more populated and heavily trafficked Lower Rio Grande Valley, they come face-to-face with the human side of the immigration debate and enter uncharted emotional waters.

Run Time: 

1 hour 49 min.
"'The River and the Wall' doesn’t mean to be balanced. Without preaching, it immerses viewers in the natural world and makes an effective case for keeping it that way."
The Hollywood Reporter