Robert Redford narrates new IMAX film
NEW YORK -March 12, 2008 Redford, a lifelong environmentalist, previously navigated the
Colorado River and has a boat on Lake Powell, a manmade reservoir
on the Arizona-Utah border created by a dam. He worries about water
conservation as a drought threatens the region - and, visibly, the
Colorado.
"(The river is) endangered now on a number of fronts," Redford
said by phone Monday from his office in Park City, Utah, where he
holds his Sundance Film Festival every year.
"Its volume is shrinking because of a megadrought cycle that's
now facing the Southwest, and some scientists predict that it could
last into the next century," said Redford, who referred to a
recent study forecasting that lakes Powell and Mead - another vital
storage reservoir on the Colorado - could dry up in the next 13
years amid climate change and increasing demand for water.
The issues affecting the river, a source of water for some 27
million people in seven states, are addressed in a viewer-friendly
way in "Grand Canyon Adventure: River at Risk 3D," which opens
nationwide Friday.
The film, directed by Greg MacGillivray, follows environmental
activist Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., and anthropologist Wade Davis -
each accompanied by their respective daughters, Kick Kennedy and
Tara Davis - as they explore the river with the expertise of Native
American guide Shana Watahomigie. It features music by the Dave
Matthews Band.
Redford praised the movie's "generational" narrative.
"(Kennedy and Davis are) passing something on (to their
daughters), as I try to do with my kids (and) say `ok, you guys, we
have an obligation to future generations to protect something,"'
he said.