Follow the Water

Director/Editor

Follow the Water explores the ripple effect of being physically and spiritually disconnected from the waters of the Pacific Northwest and what we can learn from the indigenous stewards of the land. I worked with the great people at Clean Rivers Coalition, a nonprofit who partnered with the Columbia Inter-Tribal Fish Commission, to produce this film in 2021-2022.

We set out to explore questions surrounding our connection, disconnection and ultimate reconnection to water: How do indigenous people view their connection to water? How did the new inhabitants of this land become disconnected from the waters after settling here? How can we reconnect to the waters- and to each other? Our hope is that our film inspires conversations around how each of us can find our own unique way of feeling connected to the land and water we call our home and thereby have more stake in protecting it.

Follow the Water premiered at the Portland EcoFilm Festival to a sold out theater in the spring of 2023.

”We carry a memory and water carries a memory. When they come together we are being reminded of who we are.”

—Judy Bluehorse Skelton

This documentary short (runtime 20 minutes) is broken up into three chapters: Connection, Disconnection and Reconnection and is told through an indigenous lens including historical, sociological and scientific perspectives.

We always hear about what we can do to conserve water and be better stewards of our environment, but rarely do we stop and think about our spiritual and cultural connection to our waters. Once we contemplate what water means to us personally and the interconnectedness of everything, we have a foundation to create more lasting change and fuller lives. It was an honor to get to speak to Judy Bluehorse Skelton and Wenix Red Elk, two Native American Indian women who shared with me their creation story and their wisdom about how we can reconnect to something we have lost since settling here on this land. It was important to me to make the film relatable to the "non-environmentalist" viewer so the last chapter provides modern-day, out-of-the-box examples of how people can reconnect to water.