Headwaters Down
Conservation Storytelling & Community Impact
Headwaters Down is a production house I founded with two old friends, Justin Black and Dietrich Teschner. We tell conservation stories, we have a lot of fun doing it, and we work with and support the communities and organizations that are responsible for these stories.
The name Headwaters Down comes from our first film project: paddling and documenting the 350-mile James River from its headwaters in the Blue Ridge Mountains to its confluence with the Chesapeake Bay. This simple story contains profound insights into one of America’s most ecologically rehabilitated rivers; it also showcases the underrated beauty of the James and the life-changing bonds that are formed when adventuring in the outdoors.
Above all, this was a passion project for a few friends who grew up in Virginia. The films are by turn joyful, dramatic, poetic, and unexpected; the soundtrack was made by people paddling the river, and some of it was made on the river. The end result is a love letter to the James and an invitation to others to seek out that love for themselves — wherever they live.
Headwaters Down is a two-part series available to stream on PBS.
Included below is our short film on Atlantic sturgeon breaching in the James. It’s fun, features rare sturgeon footage, and is a good introduction to our work — especially if you only have 20 minutes to spare. (Fun fact, this film happened by accident! What began as a half-baked attempt to get one shot for a feature film turned into a month-long obsession. At the end, we realized we had just enough footage to tell a story, so we made this to help promote the release of the feature.)