Conservation filmmaker Ben Masters, the directorial force behind the award-winning documentary The River and the Wall, will keynote the 25th Anniversary Gala of the Río Grande International Study Center (RGISC) on Friday, October 11, at the Laredo Country Club.
The River and the Wall took the Louis Black Lone Star Award at 2019’s South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin.
The River and the Wall follows five adventurers as they travel 1,200 miles of the borderlands from El Paso to the Gulf of Mexico on horses, mountain bikes, and canoes.
Masters recruited NatGeo Explorer Filipe DeAndrade, ornithologist Heather Mackey, river guide Austin Alvarado, and conservationist Jay Kleberg for the1,200 mile journey down the river.
In addition to footage of some of the most pristine landscapes along the river, the film reveals the palpable genial camaraderie of the five travelers and of their exchanges in circumstances of endurance, running the gauntlet of dangerous bouldeers through treacherous white water rapids, encountering sudden weather changes, and traversing the box canyons of Big Bend.
The telling of the stories of first generation immigrants De Andrade and Alvarado are particularly poignant on the waters of the Río Grande. There is humor in horseman Masters’ disdain for bicycles and in playful moments of levity on the water.
Ornithologist Mackey and conservationist Kleberg provide a powerful narrative for what will be lost environmentally to the construction of the proposed border wall.
Laredo rancher Steve LaMantia appears in the film, taking a courageous pro-immigration, anti-wall stance.
THE GALA
Other honorees at the 25th Anniversary Gala include attorney Lawrence Mann, María Eugenia Guerra, Earthjustice, the Guadalupe and Lilia Martinez Foundation, and Dr. Jim Earhart, co-founder of RGISC.
Individual tickets and tables of 10 are on sale at rgisc.org/Register
For further information, call the RGISC office at (956) 718-1063.
