Follow the Water

About the Show

At noon on a hot summer day two exhausted-looking guys in a canoe approach the confluence of the Platte and Missouri Rivers in Nebraska. Photographer Mike Forsberg and Filmmaker Peter Stegen are at the end of a 55-day journey through the Platte Basin Watershed — from snowmelt in the mountains of Wyoming, through the Colorado Rockies, to the mouth of the Platte. Why did they do it? As Forsberg explains, “All life on this planet depends on water. I want to know where our water comes from!”

“Follow the Water” is an adventure story with a profound environmental message. Traveling by bike, on foot and in a canoe, Forsberg and Stegen followed a mythical drop of water 1,300 miles through three different states. They didn’t do it alone — friends joined them, helped guide them, and even rescued them when they got in trouble. Using iPhones, go-pros and underwater cameras they created a vibrant video journal. As Stegen says, “You can chop this river up a million times and give us so many facts and figures. But to really set the hook, you've got to make it personal and you've got to make people care.”

“If you want to find where the power lies, follow the money. If you want to find where life is, just go follow the water.” - Mike Forsberg

From the solitude of alpine wilderness to the sprawling suburbs of Denver to the magic of sunrise on the Platte River, “Follow the Water” tells what happens when you get close to the flow of the water — get out and taste it, touch it, struggle with it. In Forsberg’s words, “If you want to find where the power lies, follow the money. If you want to find where life is, just go follow the water.”