Water might not be the first feature you think about when you consider the Texas landscape. But, of course, it’s here. And if it weren’t, we wouldn’t be.
A new documentary in theaters Friday, “Deep in the Heart 2: Texas Rivers,” explores the rivers and aquifers that bring life to Texas. It’s the follow-up to the first full-length nature documentary about Texas.
“It was honestly a lot more successful than we thought. Like people loved it. Texans love Texas,” said director Ben Masters. “So, that film came out and everybody was like, ‘you gotta do another one.’ So we needed to find a new topic, and Texas has a very interesting relationship with water and with rivers.”
A recognizable voice
Matthew McConaughey narrated the first film. Ethan Hawke provides the voice this time. Masters said he felt “unbelievably grateful” to get to work with them and that they each brought something unique to the opportunity.
“McConaughey, he brought that whimsical love of Texas that nobody else can deliver to ‘Deep in the Heart 1,’” Masters said.
The second film has more emotional extremes.
“And [Hawke] just delivered an absolutely phenomenal narration performance,” Masters said.
Masters joked he hoped Beyoncé might be up for narrating the third film — which is already in the works — with the current tagline “Born in Texas.”
» MORE: ‘Hope for the Guadalupe’ tells the story of a healing river and community
Groundbreaking wildlife footage
The film is not just about Texas rivers but the wildlife that depends on it — otters, turkeys and mountain lions. The latter also played a big role in the first “Deep in the Heart.”
“We got some pretty outrageous mountain lion footage for this film,” Masters said. “We cracked the code. We figured out how to find them, how to follow them, how to stay with them for weeks on end and how to film them hunt.”
One of the first scenes in the film features a lioness on the Pecos River that was raising three nearly full-grown kittens.
“And [we] just got some outrageous hunt sequences,” Masters said. “It was fun. I mean, we would stay up for days on end, and that was probably our most challenging shoot to accomplish.”
The story of water in Texas
“The challenge that we have in Texas is that our river management and our water laws are based off of laws and dams and infrastructure that were built and developed over 100 years ago without the technology of calculators,” Masters said. “They were doing the best that they could at the time. But a lot of stuff has changed.”
He hopes “Deep in the Heart 2” can educate everyday Texans and also conservationists, like himself, about how to help Texas aquifers, springs and rivers sustain us long-term.
“I wish I could have watched this film 15 years ago because I feel like I would have been so much more educated about how water works,” Masters said. “I studied wildlife biology at Texas A&M. I live in this world, and it really wasn’t until I spent significant amounts of time researching this movie before I kind of began to grasp how rivers and water functions in the state.”
While there are signs of strain — some significant — on Texas’ water outlook, Masters is still optimistic.
» MORE: It’ll take a lot of change for one of the most iconic watering holes in Texas to reopen to swimming
“I think that Texas can really get on a good path with its water management,” Masters said. “I think there’s some low-hanging fruits on what we can do to manage our water better.”
He thinks the message that will resonate with Texans is the central one to this film: Texans love their springs, rivers and creeks — and we want them to thrive.
“And I think most of us are willing to sacrifice some things in order to have that,” Masters said. “But there’s gonna need to be some big change within our groundwater management as well as our river management here in Texas in order for us to get on a more sustainable water path.”
If you found the reporting above valuable, please consider making a donation to support it here. Your gift helps pay for everything you find on texasstandard.org and KUT.org. Thanks for donating today.