Flutterby™! : Same River Twice

Went and saw The Same River Twice. Quite a few moments where I was thinking "someone tell the film-maker not to be in love with his footage", and yet I found myself very affected by the film. It's a documentary based on a film that Rob Moss shot in 1978, on a whitewater trip down the Grand Canyon, followed up a few years ago when he went and tracked down the guides on that previous trip.

There was, perhaps, a bit more nudity in 1978, and these folks were running less scheduled multi-day trips, but there was a lot that I found familiar with my own experiences on the Ocoee a decade later; that feeling of comraderie, the fast friendships that come from sharing danger, the adrenaline rush that knocked us out of our afternoon naps when the bus came into view and someone hollered "showtime!".

Contrast that with the mundaneness of life 20 years later and it was something of a wake-up call. The nature of friendships changed, from a broad web to one person, bodies had gotten a bit softer, smiles more tense... Sometimes looking in the mirror isn't a pretty thing.

If you never had the river guide sort of experience, I think this film will mean nothing to you. I did, and while a few times during the film I wondered why I was watching yet another long cut from modern life, in walking out of the theater I was reminded of a lot that's changed, and some things that I've lost.