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Ride America’s most
thrilling rapids while tackling the global water crisis in
Grand Canyon Adventure 3D: River at Risk
Opening March 28, 2008 at Museum of Discovery and Science
AutoNation® IMAX® 3D Theater
Featuring songs and music
by Dave Matthews Band
March 18, 2008
– On March 28, 2008, Museum of Discovery and Science AutoNation®
IMAX® Theater and MacGillivray Freeman Films, producers of the
blockbuster giant-screen hit Everest, will literally make a
splash with Grand Canyon Adventure: River at Risk. Narrated by
Robert Redford, the giant screen film combines
exhilarating river-rafting action on America’s most iconic
river, family fun and the grandeur of the Grand Canyon to tell
an engaging story of how ordinary people can make a difference
for our parched planet – one that is running out of clean, fresh
water so fast that the U.N. estimates that 40% of the world
could face life-threatening shortages by the year 2050.
Taking audiences on this illuminating rafting trip are two
environmental heroes: world-renowned river advocate
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and celebrated
author/anthropologist/explorer Wade Davis,
accompanied by their daughters—Kick Kennedy and Tara
Davis—for whom this journey will become a moving rite
of passage. They are guided by Shana Watahomigie,
a member of the Havasupai tribe and the first Native American to
become a National Park Ranger and river guide. A stirring score
featuring songs and music from the Grammy Award-winning
Dave Matthews Band sets the mood for this adventure
that explores the spiritual, artistic and life-sustaining powers
of water—and makes crystal clear that each of us must do our
part to better manage this crucial resource for the future.
“Safe fresh water is a human right like clean air, yet more than
one-fifth of the world’s people suffer without adequate clean
water,” says Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., who
recalls going down the Colorado just a few decades ago with his
own father and seeing wide, sandy banks and animals that have
since vanished. “My hope is that Grand Canyon Adventure: River
at Risk will remind the world that restoring our waterways and
conserving fresh water are important, not just in developing
nations but here at home. The quality and survival of our
civilization will depend on it.”
“In our film, the Colorado River becomes a metaphor for global
water issues, revealing how interconnected our rivers, water
supply and human actions really are,” says the film’s two-time
Academy Award-nominated producer/director Greg MacGillivray.
“A river trip is one of those amazing life events where you’re
ripped out of your daily routine and inspired to see the world
in new ways. With IMAX 3D images, we’re able to put the audience
even more into the action and let them participate in every
twist and turn.”
The vital urgency for people around the world to address the
water crisis comes to the fore as the explorers make their way
down the Colorado, itself a prime example of a mighty and
hallowed river that has been altered by excess and inefficient
use. The Colorado once flowed freely across 1,400 miles, from
the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Ocean. Today, however, the
lower half of the Colorado no longer consistently reaches the
sea, and the river, which is a source of water and power to 25
million Americans, is literally shrinking due to a severe
drought cycle now facing the American Southwest. Researchers
predict this so-called “mega-drought” could last into the next
century, threatening to wreck havoc among the seven states that
depend heavily on the river’s water.
With the earth’s population soaring, far too many people have
found themselves without daily access to water. From the
American West to Africa, aquifers are tapped out, waterways have
been dammed into extinction and wetlands have turned to deserts.
The result is that more than a staggering 1.5 billion people—one
in five on the planet—have been left thirsty, while 5 million
people a year tragically die due to water-borne illnesses.
Shot in four weeks almost entirely on the Colorado River, the
challenging production took the 300-pound 3D IMAX camera through
its paces and involved the cooperation of three Indian nations,
the National Park Service, Teva and its team of champion
kayakers and more than a dozen experienced river guides. The
filming of Grand Canyon Adventure: River at Risk represents the
largest filmmaking expedition in the canyon's recent history and
the last major film production of its magnitude to be shot in
the canyon due to new protective restrictions on the number of
crew members and equipment allowed.
As the explorers float through the breath-taking canyons and
crash through the raging rapids, they also trace the history of
the river. They compare what they see on their trip with 3D
photos taken by Jack Hillers on explorer John Wesley Powell’s
courageous second expedition down the river in 1872—and find the
landscape dramatically changed. For the two fathers whose life
work is so closely connected to water, the expedition is also an
opportunity to pass the conservation torch to their daughters,
whose generation must face the task of making sure we will all
have a share in the earth’s fresh water resources.
“The least we can do is try to create a world where everyone can
have a glass of fresh drinking water,”
adds MacGillivray. “If this film allows more people to feel a
deeper respect for rivers and water everywhere, then we will
have accomplished what we set out to do. I hope people leave the
theatre ready to install a low-flow shower head and to think
about water in a new way.”
Grand Canyon Adventure: River at Risk is produced by
MacGillivray Freeman Films and MacGillivray Freeman Films
Educational Foundation in association with
Waterkeeper Alliance and Museum Film Network, presented
by Teva and supported by Kohler Co.
The film is directed by Greg MacGillivray,
produced by Greg MacGillivray, Mark Krenzien,
and Shaun MacGillivray, and written by
Jack Stephens and Stephen Judson. The
score is co-composed by Dave Matthews Band’s Stefan
Lessard and Steve Wood.
www.GrandCanyonAdventureFilm.com
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