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Botella

The Rio Alseseca in Mexico tears its way from a dormant volcano high above Veracruz in a ceaseless torrent of waterfalls. This wildly majestic river is one of the most unique in the world. The river, beloved as a paddler playground, plummets its way through towns and villages filling its banks and eddies with filth and forgotten things. Discarded as a dump, a small legion of paddlers are hoping a race through this heart-quickening waterscape might be the best way to save it.

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The Rio Alseseca in Mexico tears its way from a dormant volcano high above Veracruz in a ceaseless torrent of waterfalls. This wildly majestic river is one of the most unique in the world. The river, beloved as a paddler playground, plummets its way through towns and villages filling its banks and eddies with filth and forgotten things. Discarded as a dump, a small legion of paddlers are hoping a race through this heart-quickening waterscape might be the best way to save it.

Words from the filmmaker: I first paddled the Alseseca in 2007. It was the first time I had been on a river that forced me to open my eyes to the pollution and total disregard for an incredible place. Since 2007, I’ve been able to work on the craft of storytelling in and around rivers that are under threat or deserve a voice. Over the past two years, I moved away from river conservation projects to explore other styles of filmmaking. When I knew I was going back to the Alseseca this year, I really wanted to do something different, combining the styles of filmmaking that I’ve worked on. It felt natural to go back to river conservation.

For me, Botella was a creative and unique way to convey a story that’s been told before: paddlers want to see rivers protected and kept clean. The bottle represents all of the kayakers that have previously paddled the Alseseca. The journey of the green cleaning bottle is the one that I always think of when I think of the pollution in that river and the irony it represents: green, clean and filling eddies one bottle at a time.

In 2007, I remember landing in eddies that were filled with bottles. It was horrible. This year we shot the piece on the first day of river cleanup, so in theory it was at it’s worst. I wish I could have shown footage of how bad it actually was but we couldn’t find any. I’m happy to see the success that the paddling community has had on this classic river and I can’t wait to go back years to come and see the continued improvement and awareness.

Editor’s Note: Guest Contributor Mike McKay is an award-winning filmmaker, a professional whitewater kayaker, and a passionate river conservationist. He has paddled some of the world’s most remote rivers and filmed some of the best athletes the sport has to offer.