The River and the Wall

Director: Ben Masters

Winner of Louis Black/Lone Star Award for Best Texan Film at 2019 SXSW Film Festival

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 in canoes.

As the threat of new border wall construction looms ahead, conservation filmmaker Ben Masters realized the urgency of documenting the last remaining wilderness in Texas. He recruited NatGeo Explorer Filipe DeAndrade, ornithologist Heather Mackey, river guide Austin Alvarado, and conservationist Jay Kleberg to join him on a two-and-a-half-month journey along the U.S.-Mexico border.

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 came face-to-face with the human side of the immigration debate and entered unchartered emotional waters.

Released in 2019
97 minutes
Explorers & Adventures