We were joined by producer Hillary Pierce on March 15th to discuss the documentary feature film, THE RIVER AND THE WALL directed by Ben Masters.
ABOUT THE FILMMAKER
Hillary Pierce - Producer
Hillary Pierce is an Emmy Award-winning documentary filmmaker who floats between the city life of Austin and the deserts of Far West Texas. She spent several years working in scripted film and television in her native North Carolina before relocating to New York City to begin a career in documentary film under the tutelage of Direct Cinema pioneer Albert Maysles.
She has spent the better part of the last decade producing feature documentaries in Texas, including Keith Maitland's 2016 films TOWER and A SONG FOR YOU: THE AUSTIN CITY LIMITS STORY and Ben Masters' 2019 THE RIVER AND THE WALL. TOWER won the Grand Jury Documentary Prize and Audience Award at SXSW in 2016, broadcast nationally on PBS’ Independent Lens, was shortlisted for an Academy Award, nominated for a Peabody, and won the 2018 Emmy for Outstanding Historical Documentary. THE RIVER AND THE WALL premiered at SXSW in 2019 and won the Louis Black "Lone Star" Award. It was released theatrically and digitally in May of 2019 and broadcast on Starz the following October. THE RIVER AND THE WALL was nominated for the 2020 Emmy for Outstanding Nature Documentary.
She most recently produced Emmy Award-winning director Maisie Crow's forthcoming documentary feature, AT THE READY, premiering at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival.
ABOUT THE FILM
The River and the Wall follows five friends on an immersive adventure through the unknown wilds of the Texas borderlands as they travel 1200 miles from El Paso to the Gulf of Mexico on horses, mountain bikes, and canoes. They set out to document the borderlands and explore the potential impacts of a wall on the natural environment, but as the wilderness gives way to the more populated and heavily trafficked Lower Rio Grande Valley, they come face-to-face with the human side of the immigration debate and enter uncharted emotional waters.
Learn more about THE RIVER AND THE WALL and where to watch HERE!