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Life on the Delaware takes an intimate look at
the people of the Delaware River watershed. Rather than
taking a dry, academic look at complex "issues" or pitting
the environment against the economy, the documentary approaches
the complex Delaware from an accessible, highly personal
point of view. It is a travelogue in which the narrator
shakes aside her own assumptions about this "working river"
and brings viewers into the lives of some of the extraordinary
individuals who have committed to making the Delaware
a healthy waterway for the generations to come.
The narrator begins with a vision of the Delaware as a
"rough around the edges," industrial river, not a "River
Runs Through It," pristine kind of place. As the narrator
journeys from the headwaters in New York's Catskill Mountains
through the familiar "industrial zone" and on to the beautiful
estuary, she meets a cast of characters who introduce
her to "their" Delaware. Along the way, she learns how
little she really knew about the river — and how so many
people are doing their part to protect the precious waterway
that ultimately belongs to all of us — and to the rest of
the world.
We meet people like Joan Wulff, an energetic grandmother
who is renowned for her fly-fishing school. Joan may teach
her students to cast a mean fly, but her lessons are as
much about environmental stewardship as her love of the
sport. And Ruth Jones, who annually provides thousands
of people with spiritual rejuvenation by forging a personal
connection with the Delaware, based on recreation and
fun.
A theme underpins the evocative images of the Delaware
taken by photographer Chris Boas: everyone lives downstream
(and upstream) from somebody else. The Riverkeeper knows
this well, for her role as voice of the Delaware to ensure
the river is cared for, not just used and abused.
By getting to know such a diverse group of people, visiting
"a Garden of Eden in the middle of a concrete jungle,"
and encountering the strange creature she'd always considered
a "smelly nuisance along the beach," our narrator realizes
that there's much more to the Delaware than the urban
river she thought she knew. It is a water-based highway
that is critical to the region's economy in so many ways.
But it is also a living ecosystem, a shared resource that
is being cared for by people like Ruth and Joan and hundreds
of others who have never met and probably never will.
It is a national treasure that is essential to millions
of human lives and many times that number of species that
make their home in the natural world.
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LIFE ON THE DELAWARE
is presented by WLVT-39 and distributed nationally
through American Public Television. |
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