In Development
The Water We Carry
A documentary project in development about water, memory, and survival in the American Southwest.
The Southwest is running on borrowed water.
For more than two decades, the Colorado River Basin has been shaped by drought, rising temperatures, overuse, and decisions made in a wetter past. Today, the river supports more than 40 million people, farms, cities, ecosystems, and tribal communities across seven U.S. states and Mexico. Federal officials have warned that the future of the system depends on immediate, durable action. U.S. Bureau of Reclamation
The Water We Carry is a film project in development tracing the human story inside this crisis: what water means, who gets to claim it, what is disappearing, and what we owe to the places that keep us alive.
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Why This Story, Why Now
Water in the Southwest is not just a resource. It is memory, power, inheritance, conflict, and care.
The Colorado River system is facing one of the defining climate and justice questions of our time. Scientists have found that the 2000-2021 period was the driest 22-year period in southwestern North America since at least the year 800, with human-caused climate trends intensifying the drought. Nature Climate Change
At the same time, the infrastructure and legal agreements governing the river were built around assumptions that no longer match the climate we live in. A USGS-published study notes that between January 2000 and April 2023, the amount of water stored in Lake Mead and Lake Powell dropped by 33.5 million acre-feet. The same study found that stabilizing the system would require basin-wide water use to decline to match modern runoff. U.S. Geological Survey
This is not a distant future. It is already here.
The Project
The Water We Carry is currently in development.
We are researching, filming, and building the creative foundation for a documentary that explores the Southwest water crisis through intimate stories, place-based imagery, and verified environmental context.
The film will ask:
What does water reveal about what we value?
What happens when a region’s future depends on sharing less?
Who is heard when water decisions are made?
How do we grieve, adapt, and act before the well runs dry?
This project is about the crisis, but it is also about connection: to land, to family, to history, and to the fragile systems that make life possible.
A Few Facts Behind the Film
More than 40 million people rely on the Colorado River system for water. U.S. Bureau of Reclamation
Lake Mead and Lake Powell are the two largest reservoirs in the United States, and their combined storage declined by 33.5 million acre-feet from January 2000 to April 2023. U.S. Geological Survey
Researchers found that the 2000-2021 Southwest megadrought was the driest 22-year period in the region since at least 800 CE. Nature Climate Change
Current Colorado River operating guidelines are set to expire at the end of 2026, making the next agreement a major turning point for the region’s water future. U.S. Bureau of ReclamationWrite your text here...
What Your Support Makes Possible
Your donation helps fund the next stage of development, including research, travel, filming, interviews, editing, archival material, and production planning.
Every contribution helps us move from concept to completed film.
Help bring The Water We Carry to life.
Donate now and become part of the project.
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A Few Facts Behind the Film
More than 40 million people rely on the Colorado River system for water. U.S. Bureau of Reclamation
Lake Mead and Lake Powell are the two largest reservoirs in the United States, and their combined storage declined by 33.5 million acre-feet from January 2000 to April 2023. U.S. Geological Survey
Researchers found that the 2000-2021 Southwest megadrought was the driest 22-year period in the region since at least 800 CE. Nature Climate Change
Current Colorado River operating guidelines are set to expire at the end of 2026, making the next agreement a major turning point for the region’s water future. U.S. Bureau of ReclamationWrite your text here...