Blountstown filmmaker Elam Stoltzfus could not suppress his excitement at being in Apalachicola on Saturday.

The demand to see his new documentary, The Apalachicola River: An American Treasure, necessitated three screenings at the Dixie Theatre.

The large crowds spilled over into the premiere’s reception, hosted by Prudential Resort Realty and Forgotten Coast TV
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"It’s my masterpiece to date," said an exuberant Stoltzfus, whose last award winning film, Living Waters: Aquatic Preserves, featured St. Joe Bay.

Ambitious in scope and lovingly executed, The Apalachicola River tackles art, science, conservation, politics and spiritualism in a running time of 57 minutes.

Some of the most moving scenes were filmed in Franklin County, and feature local residents who make their livings on the Apalachicola Bay.

Crabber Dennis "Squeaky" Martina, shown with a single crab dangling in his wire trap, extols the freedom that comes with working on the water.

"Nobody can tell me what to do, how long I can stay, or when I got to come back or nothing. I’m my own boss," he said.
Moments later, Martina imagines a not-so-distant future when the seafood industry will fail to sustain its people.

Increased gas prices, governmental restrictions and explosive development along coastal areas receive frequent mention from seafood workers Steve Smeby, Eugene Webb and Fred Millender.

Millender sees condominiums coming to Eastpoint, and says it doesn’t make him "feel good."

Stoltzfus interviewed the men before a turbulent hurricane season ravaged Eastpoint and devastated several local seafood houses.

Stoltzfus captured the aftermath on film. In the footage, men sit solemnly on boats reduced to rubble.

"They didn’t say a lot, but they let me get right in there and film them," said Stoltzfus.

In the hurricane segment, Millender sings an old spiritual with the refrain, "Were you there when they crucified my Lord?"

Stoltzfus recorded Millender’s impromptu vocal performance during an interview months before Hurricane Dennis, and knew he had something special.

He and composer Sammy Tedder struggled in vain to find a place for the music in the film.

When Stoltzfus recorded the hurricane footage, he remembered Millender’s song, which serves as a haunting accompaniment to the images of tragedy.

Stoltzfus, a Pennsylvania native with a farming background, felt a kinship with the fishermen, and his empathy is evident in the film.

"They understand this place and when they talk about what’s happening, you need to believe them, because they’re right," he said.

Apalachicola photographer Richard Bickel, known for his striking portraits of Apalachicola Bay seafood workers, is featured with landscape photographer Clyde Butcher in the film’s artist segment.

At the reception, Bickel signed copies of his companion photography book, entitled Apalachicola River, and described seafood workers as a hard-working, anti-materialistic group of people who are not often given credit for their insight.

"Everything there is to know about the water and the land, they’ll be able to teach you everything there is," he said.

Bickel sits on the board of the Apalachicola Bay and River Keepers (ABARK), a non-profit conservancy group dedicated to protecting the Apalachicola River and Bay.

ABARK helped sponsor the documentary and accepted donations at Saturday’s reception.

Faye Johnson, ABARK’s director of development, called the film "a way to document a vanishing culture and a vanishing way of life."

"I think it’s very important that people take notice of what we have and try to protect it before it’s gone," Johnson said.
The Apalachicola River does not shy away from controversial topics.

While extolling the river’s scenic beauty and abundance of rare plant life, the film also addresses the Army Corp of Engineers’ destructive dredging campaigns and the tri-state water wars that will soon be resolved by the Supreme Court.

Wewahitchka activist Marilyn Blackwell cites the ecological damage done by the Corps of Engineers, and warns people not to tamper with nature.

"Everybody’s got a plan. They’ve got a project," said Blackwell. "Leave the river alone and do a project somewhere else."

Reception goers snapped up DVDs of the film, and CDs of Tedder’s score.

The Sopchoppy musician captured the sounds of the Apalachicola River with handcrafted river cane flutes and drums made from hollow cypress and black gum logs.

He accompanied Stoltzfus and scriptwriter Jane Atkins on many river excursions.

"Everybody was telling me you’ve got to capture the feeling of the river. It’s not like you can take a picture," noted Tedder. "You have to think deep and get a feeling for the place."

For Stoltzfus, translating his feelings for his adopted home proved a pleasure.

Unlike the subjects in his previous documentaries, he felt a natural kinship with the river and its people.

"One thing that’s different, this is home, and almost all of the people in the film I either knew or knew of them," said Stoltzfus.

"I knew I could tell this story."