The River and the Wall

Very personal and touchy. Philip's story is fascinating. It was amazing to discover how beautiful parts of Texas are. Also amazing opportunity to meet the crew and ask question at SXSW.

The River and the Wall was warmly and enthusiastically received at its world premiere at Austin's SXSW Film Festival. This is a amazing and unique film. The filmmakers capture the journey as a group travels down the entire 1200 mile length of the Rio Grande portion of the US (Texas) - Mexico border from El Paso to Brownsville. They spend two months on bicycles, horses and canoes traveling the entire river boundary. The filming is exquisitely beautiful. This powerful documentary seeks to redefine how we see the border as less of international boundary where Trump plans to build a wall and more of complex ecosystem and thus sheds a new light on how our political debate is framed. The River and Wall is beautifully filmed and presents an eye-opening examination of the border. It deconstructs our idea of the border itself. In doing so it argues that a border wall is not only a humanitarian disaster, but an ecological one as well. It is an important perspective that has been mostly absent from our debate about the moronic idea of building a border wall. The film also includes the personal perspective of the team that makes the journey and some of the local residents. The film is supplemented by interviews with former Congressman Beto O-Rourke (D-TX) and current Congressman Will Hurd (R-TX) who share a bipartisan opposition to building a border wall. This is an emotional and provocative film which needs to be widely viewed as antidote to the absurd arguments about building a border wall.

Everyone should see this movie, it is beautifully done. A very straightforward beautiful inquiry into what a wall really means and is it even possible given the realities of the geography.

Part of me has been on the fence about the giant immigration problems dominating the news over the last few months. But seeing this movie has literally opened my eyes. The vistas and panoramic shots left me gasping in my theater seat and by the way DO NOT watch this on a phone or computer. Go to a theater and see it large. Everybody has an agenda, and most of the people in front of TV cameras these days are shouting and gesticulating about theirs. Here is a lower key, rational, thoughtful and emotionally careful presentation that does not try to be authoritative or have the last word. It asks you to think and reflect and accept.

It could have been so much more. Instead it slid into one-sided propaganda about illegal immigration and the Trump administration, and that's going to be a political commercial and not going to change minds and opinions about how best to protect the border.