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Turner Turns to Water Wars

01/11/2011

In his most recent documentary, a timely and provocative film made for Georgia Public Broadcasting, Rhett Turner 98 PH probes the bitter, 20-year-old struggle over water and control of the waterways in Alabama, Florida and Georgia.

Chattahoochee: From Water War to Water Vision looks at the complex origins of the conflict and the challenges ahead – all through the eyes of citizen stakeholders and experts. Quoting Mark Twain, who more than a hundred years ago observed that if “whiskey is for drinking, water is for fighting over,” the one-hour documentary makes it clear that regional disputes over water have expanded beyond the notoriously arid West. Instead, more and more states are now struggling to balance the demands of nonstop growth with the need to protect and preserve this precious nonrenewable resource.

As president of Red Sky Productions in Atlanta, Turner has been making documentaries for global television audiences since 1999, traveling to Africa, Asia, Antarctica, Europe and South America to shoot his films. He produced and shot Antarctica: The Spirit of Adventure and has served as director of photography for programs on CNN, TBS and PBS, including Rwanda Gorilla, El Lobo: The Song of the Wolf and Avoiding Armageddon, the monumental PBS series narrated by Walter Cronkite.