Water is life. Telling the story of North America’s watershed and the front line warriors fighting the status quo. Mni Wiconi
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Confluence Origins:
In 2014, the Missouri River Research Endeavor paddled the entire length of the Missouri River from the headwaters of Three Forks, Montana to the confluence with the Mississippi in St. Louis. Water samples were taken as the river meandered into North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, and Missouri. Whether nitrates from farming or chemicals used in fracking, the quality of the water dropped off as the water moved downstream.
Confluence Production:
Director Steve Gute has attempted to examine the downstream consequences and water issues in general throughout the continent. Journeying through 48 states over the last 7 years, Steve has interviewed hundreds of locals, scientists, and politicians – embedding himself into communities where the water is in peril. From pipeline protesters to fracking proponents, the common theme is our water, and deciding as a community what kind of future we are fighting for. Whether you live in Flint, Michigan, Standing Rock, North Dakota, “Cancer Alley,” Louisiana, or Chaco Canyon, New Mexico – we all should have a say in protecting our livelihood. After all, water is life, and life cannot exist without access to clean water. If we slowly poison ourselves, we are selling out our future. Beautiful nature where we can camp, paddle out, and fish will all be relics of the past until we wake up to what is unfolding currently.
Line 3 / Line 5
Minnesota, the “Top of Turtle Island,” where water flows down in every direction. The Great Lakes and Enbridge. Once completed, the Enbridge Line 3 / Line 5 network would move tar sands from Winnipeg, Manitoba to Sarnia, Ontario using the USA as a shortcut, putting our entire fresh water supply in jeopardy
Snake River Dams
There are four dams on the Lower Snake River: Ice Harbor, Lower Monumental, Little Goose, and Lower Granite. The Palouse and other tribes who lived along the river were relocated in order to dam up the river to provide slack water for barge traffic to ship grain down the snake. There is little to no barge traffic now, most of the grain is shipped by rail, and the salmon runs have been decimated by these dams. The Palouse were promised that the dams would be removed in 50 years but here they still stand… in complete disregard of Native-American treaties… wreaking havoc on the environment. The time has come for the dams to be removed….
LNG Terminal in Tacoma
Breaking -12/11/2017 – TACOMA, WASHINGTON
Two water protectors lock themselves to a crane at Puget Sound Energy’s LNG construction site in a defiant act of civil disobedience. Construction was halted for the day as tribal members and Tacoma residents gathered in front of the gates of the site to speak out against the Puget Sound Energy. PSE wants to put their 8 million gallon, 14-story tall fracked gas tank at the Port of Tacoma. Natural gas is a fossil fuel predominantly composed of methane (which is 4x more powerful as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide in its first 20 years in the atmosphere). It is typically extracted via fracking deep rock formations underground. Liquefied natural gas (LNG) is natural gas converted to liquid by cooling it to -260 degrees F. PSE’s LNG facility is located on the Cascadian fault in a zone at risk for earthquakes, lahars, and tsunamis. A study conducted by the City of Tacoma predicts the Port will be flooded by 2050. This facility is being built in the heart of a metropolitan area where over 200,000 people live, work, and play and in an industrial center which would have a compounding effect in the event of a fire or explosion. 1,600 men and women detained at the Northwest Detention Center, a for-profit immigration prison, would be sitting ducks in the event of an emergency as there is no evacuation plan other than to “shelter in place.”
Mississippi Terminus: Thousand Year Floods & Cancer Alley
Louisiana loses its wetlands at an alarming rate. Flooding is pervasive and 1,000 year floods that used to be unprecedented have occurred in towns like Livingston. Families have lost everything they own, and the government and mainstream media have done very little to help. Historically, flooding rarely reached these areas and many residents were caught without proper flood insurance. As climate change becomes a reality we cannot ignore, over-development and destruction of the coastal wetlands has left south Louisiana vulnerable and in jeopardy of being washed away.
MEET THE FILMMAKERS
Steven Gute
A filmmaker who has worn many hats in his now twenty-year career. Steven works as a director, producer, writer, cinematographer, journalist, editor and already has a long resume of credits stretching across a multitude of formats. While his origins lay in narrative films, he was eventually sucked into a documentary spiral beginning with Leonardo DiCaprio’s 11th Hour, followed Radicalized a portrait of millennial resistance during the Occupy movement, ongoing front line documentation of protests at Standing Rock and Black Lives Matter, and ultimately leading a team to the arctic to film glaciers in decline for HBO’s Ice on Fire. He has also covered politics in great detail while working for the online news outlet, The Young Turks. Steven’s episodic documentary series Confluence, which uses water as a reflective lens to investigate a myriad of environmental concerns, is a lifelong endeavor that continues flowing.
Paul Argier
A Las Vegas-born sommelier, Paul spent his post-Film School days learning the hospitality and wine trade, taking him through Los Angeles, New York City, and Singapore.
Even after nearly 20 years working in restaurants, Paul continued his film education with his 2014 stint producing the documentary “Radicalized,” and working camera, producer, and drone shot getaway driver for “Confluence” production since 2015.
Being from the desert, water and trees were so scarce – the meandering “Confluence” journey is an experience that nourishes his soul.
Laura Cox
Born and raised in the bayous of Louisiana
FilmMaker/Producer/Activist/Organizer/Strategist/Inventor A 30 year veteran in grassroots organizing and environmental activism along the Gulf Coast
Works on regenerative and ecologically based practices to restore the planet. Dedicated to the survival of threatened and environmentally impacted areas Laura is working with Tree Media Foundation to create call to action films and toolkits, integrating the arts and nature to inspire this generation and generations to come to be conservationists and activists.
Luis Vargas
Born in Mexico, Iztapalapa and raised in Los Angeles. Your Friendly neighborhood geek. Tech Guru/Photographer/Videographer/Editor/Activist/Teacher. Joined the movement in 2011 being part of Occupy Wall St. LA/SFV – has continued to use his skills to produce the documentary Radicalized (2015). Sunflowers & Fire Photo Exhibition(2019) Systems Admin in the day, artist in the night.
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