Inspiring Local Stories on the Heroes of our Rivers

What if we could smell our local rivers long before we could see them? What if our legacy was dead streams, poisonous water and a dying ecosystem? This was the story of our community not very long ago. Mark Twain remarked that our rivers were “too thin to plow but to thick to drink” and that describes the French Broad River, the Pigeon, the Swannanoa, the Mills and the Green and many other regional waterways just a couple of decades ago.

Industry brought better paying jobs to our community but they also brought pollution so toxic that it killed the fish, the cows and in some cases, the community where cancer rates were off the charts. Many people grew up believing that all rivers were supposed to be brown and smelly and distasteful. But enter the River Heroes who said NO to the destruction. People like Wilma Dykeman in WNC and East Tennessee, Marjory Stoneman Douglas in Florida, the Upper French Broad Defense Association in NC and the Dead Pigeon River Council in Tennessee.

Their passion, their activism and their call to save our waterways awoke our communities to the need for river stewardship. Their call still echoes today in the environmental efforts, land conservancies, river keepers, green businesses and engaged communities who are working to be the stewards nature is asking us to be. The Center for Cultural Preservation, WNC’s History and Documentary Film Center, is proud to announce the release of award-winning film director David Weintraub’s new film on the ordinary people who did extraordinary things to protect southern rivers and streams. Guardians of Our Troubled Waters, is the Center’s sixth feature film that connects people to their rich cultural and natural history.

Guardians chronicles these stories and the early heroes who stood up against the destruction fighting against toxic pollution from factories, rampant draining of wetlands and the damming of tributaries that would have forced thousands of farmers from their ancestral land. The film focuses on three communities: Western North Carolina, East Tennessee and South Florida as well as the heroes who stood up against those who were killing our rivers.

According to Director Weintraub, “So much of what we take for granted today, whitewater rafting and kayaking, fishing, drinking water and the thriving brewery community harkens back to those who refused to allow profits to come before human health and the health of river ecosystems. These stories are vital because they remind us about who we are and why our natural resources are critical for our survival and that of our cherished wildlife.”

Guardians of Our Troubled Waters will have its world premieres on June 20 at 7:00 PM at Blue Ridge Community College’s Thomas Auditorium, June 22 at 7:30 PM at the NC Arboretum and June 23rd at 7:30 PM at White Horse Black Mountain. Tickets are $15 and advanced reservations are strongly recommended by registering online at www.saveculture.org or calling the Center at (828) 692-8062. Music will open each program by Cherokee performer Matthew Tooni and will be followed by a Q&A with the director.

The film is a collaboration with the Eastern Band of Cherokee, Wilma Dykeman Legacy Foundation, MountainTrue, Conserving Carolina, Haywood Waterways Association, Friends of the Everglades and Clean Water Expected in East Tennessee. Major sponsors include the Blue Ridge National Heritage Area, the Community Foundation of Henderson County, the McClure Education Foundation, the Pigeon River Fund, Gaia Herbs and Prestige Subaru with additional support from Headwaters Outfitters and Mast General Store.

The Center for Cultural Preservation is a cultural nonprofit organization dedicated to working for mountain heritage continuity through oral history, documentary film, education and public programs. For more information about the Center contact them at (828) 692-8062 or www.saveculture.org

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