For THE RIVER RED – our upcoming documentary about water use in the Colorado River Basin – Director Mark Decena, Producer Renata Foucre, Director of Photography John Behrens, Assistant Camera Fearghal ODea and Forrest Pound took a month long road trip, driving approximately 4,500 miles. They journeyed from the headwaters in Colorado, through Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico, all the way to the Delta in Mexico. The crew captured beautiful sights, intriguing characters and incredible experiences along the way, including: fly fishing the headwaters on the Fraser River, aerial photography of the gas well-perforated Garfield County, milking cows on an organic farm, rafting on the Green River through the Gates of Lodore, seeing the heart of the Navajo Nation in Canyon De Chelly, and hearing the bird symphony in the small wetland restoration of La Ciénega de Santa Clara.

Living and working out of the 31′ Airstream trailer, charging their camera batteries off solar power whenever possible in temperatures ranging from 35 to 114 degrees, they interviewed 5+ subjects and collected 4 successful long term time lapse cameras. Over 2 terabytes of footage was shot, creating more than 71,000 files. And this is just the beginning.

We want to thank the interviewees: Jeff Ehlert, Keith Lambert, Dan James (and family), Glojean Todacheene and Edith Santiago for being kind and very patient through a whirlwind of a production process.

You can now check out our behind the scenes production stills to have a better idea of our adventures along The River Red.

Fact: The director slept in a tent all but two nights. He’s happy to be back in his own bed.