Plymouth Film Club Discussion: The River and the Wall
BY RICHARD JEWELL Plymouth Film Club is offering a discussion of The River and the Wall (2019, 97 min., documentary) Sunday, Feb. 7, at 12:30 p.m. on Zoom. The guest hosts who chose the film are Plymouth’s IWWG—the Immigrant Welcoming Working Group. Beth Faeth and Joan Thompson, both travelers on Plymouth’s recent border trip to Arizona, will facilitate the discussion. The film is appropriate for all ages; please view it individually before the discussion (see options below). Presidents have been talking for many decades about building physical barriers between Mexico and the U.S. to better control immigration. Though multiple administrations from both parties have been involved in building border fences, under President Trump the process was accelerated. In 2018, five friends decided to bike, hike, boat and ride horseback 1200 miles to see “the wall” along the Rio Grande in Texas. Their filmed journey is a gorgeous testament to the beauty of this “Grande” North American river, as well as a telling story of a partly-built wall that divides not just the people of two nations, but also U.S. ranchers, park visitors and citizens from the river. The five friends start in El Paso. We see the rugged beauty of the Rio Grande and environmental issues in building the wall. As the friends descend into the Lower Valley of the river in more heavily populated areas, they learn of other issues: immigration, ranchers’ access to land and U.S. citizens’ access to state parks and national wildlife refuges. The Hollywood Reporter calls The River and the Wall “visually stunning and politically sharp.” The film won three awards, one of them at the internationally famous SXSW Film Festival. Conservation filmmaker Ben Masters recruited a National Geographic explorer, an ornithologist, another conservationist and a river guide for the trip. Join us in watching The River and the Wall on your own and then discussing it with Plymouth members Feb. 7. Watch a 2-min. preview trailer at https:// theriverandthewall.com or a 4-min. teaser at www.youtube.com/ watch?v=XtB5KmrdMtY. The entire film is available as follows: RENT (Note: some services may require a subscription): Amazon Prime, iTunes, Netflix, Starz (7-day free trial), Tubi, YouTube, Vimeo. BUY (Some let you buy and watch online): Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Best Buy. To join the discussion, go to https://us02web.zoom. us/j/89339693168 at 12:30 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 7. If you haven’t used Zoom yet show up ten minutes early to download its simple, safe software. We will look forward to seeing you for this very topical discussion about an excellent film!