Synopsis:

This experimental documentary follows our journey as we reconnect with ways humans can communicate with rivers and investigate how we may transform ourselves, our communities, and our societies through deep listening to rivers and each other. 

The driving force behind this effort to reconnect with dialogues between humans and rivers is exploring and inspiring societal pathways to repair relationships between us and other beings of nature so we may move away from extractivist societies to more caring and reciprocal connections. Listening is foundational in this. As we all understand from our human relations—there cannot be good relationships without good communication. Our exploration seeks to catalyze people to act to heal their own relationships with water bodies and to work together to imagine and construct regenerative worlds. 

Central to the documentary are the questions: How may we listen to and understand the messages of rivers? How may communicating with rivers shape us and our communities and guide us in creating sustainable and equitable societies? 

To explore answers to these questions, we travel to the lands where we (the directors) were born, The Colombian Andes and Pennsylvania, and reconnect with the rivers we grew up with, the Rio Yuma/ Magdalena River and the Lenapewihittuk/Delaware River. 

Following the path of these rivers, our journey so far has crossed with the journeys of Uma Shelley DePaul, her son Adam Waterbear DePaul, Stone-Bear Acevedo, and many more from the Lenape Nation of Pennsylvania who are building networks of care, cultural revitalization, and connection with each other through their connection with the Delaware River. As the next stage in the production of this experimental film, we plan to travel to the Colombian Andes to listen to our grandmothers and navigate The Rio Yuma/Magdalena with our friends from the Musica Nation, who are reviving native languages and revitalizing care-based ways of relating to rivers and land. 

Connecting in the ocean is the destination of all rivers —following this wisdom, we aim to help bridge connections as we develop this film in collaboration with the Lenape, the Muisca, and the many people learning from rivers and caring for them. Everyone who is participating in the creation and distribution of this film, we invite to be part of this ‘shared ocean’ of societal transformation fueled by the will to listen to the rivers and all other beings we coexist with and take actions to restore and maintain reciprocal, caring relationships with them. 

Timeline:

In July of 2023, we had our first film shoot with Uma Shelley and Adam DePaul, along with additional community members of the Lenape Nation in Pennsylvania. We gathered, shared stories, and journeyed through a stretch of the Delaware River together. With the footage from this journey, we created the first teaser trailer for this project. During the shoot, we experienced how many deep conversations and relationships were formed by our time on and with the river, and this helped us realize that the rivers are showing us the story of this film. It is the voice of the river, and the places and people that the river takes us to that will guide the development of this film. 

We have recently received a grant from the Mountain Watershed Association, which we will be using to host three community kayak days in collaboration with the Lenape. These events will serve as a platform to collectively build the narrative for our film. The final kayak day will culminate in a shoot that captures the relationships we’ve developed and includes a discussion reflecting on the insights gained throughout our journey. We believe this project will not only enrich our understanding of human-river communication but also empower communities to foster deeper connections with their local waterways.

While we plan these events, we will also be recording audio and capturing visuals of rivers in NYC to tie in our own journey and relationship to rivers through this filmmaking process. We will also foster relationships and set up interviews with people working on nature communications and rights of nature movements.

If you are interested in financially supporting us as a producer, reach out and we can share the amount options and corresponding producer credits we have available.

 Visit the When the Rivers Speak Website

Find the filmmakers Kayla Franklin and Maria F. Pulido-Velosa on Instagram: @WhentheRiversSpeak   

Facebook: When the Rivers Speak