Current Project:
FEATHER
RIVER
STORY
Feather River is a narrative short film written, directed, and performed by Allen Myers, based on his own life and set in the immediate aftermath of the 2018 Camp Fire in Paradise, California. The film explores how grief can layer and compound across time — how one traumatic loss can awaken another — and how memory lives not only in the mind, but in the body, in places, and in things. Following Mike, a disaster survivor sleeping in his car and struggling to navigate displacement, survival, and the bureaucratic realities of recovery, the story unfolds through sparse dialogue, visual storytelling, and the living presence of the Feather River itself. Shot on location using archival footage alongside newly created scenes, the film draws from real experiences of loss, recovery, and return, connecting personal grief to the rhythms and metaphors of nature. At the river, Mike encounters not only solace, but memory, release, and the possibility that when we are lost, we may find a kind of home again in the river.
OUR PARTNER:
We’re proud to partner with American Rivers as sponsor and outreach collaborator. For more than a half century, American Rivers has combined evidence-based solutions with enduring partnerships to safeguard the 4.4 million miles of rivers and streams that are essential to our nation’s clean drinking water, extraordinary wildlife, and strength of our communities.
PROCESS
ROOTS
For as long as I can remember, the Feather River has been part of my life—hiking from my family’s home into the canyon, my dad teaching me to pan for gold in its icy water and to cast a fly. I learned simple care: pack out trash, step lightly, leave it better. The river held the joy of my youth. I didn’t know then how much of who I am would be shaped by a river—my home river—its sound filling my body and settling my mind.
WHY NOW?
We live in a time when the data is clear and still not enough. Charts don’t move a heart that’s gone numb. Relationship does. Each of us, whether we know it or not, has a “home river”—or lake, creek, ocean, spring. What body of water made you? Why does that matter in a climate crisis? Because belonging can become care, and care can become action.
HoW We Film
This project returns to the Feather River through the seasons to listen first and then film. We work slowly and with a small footprint—early and late light, tripod and careful drifts, sound recorded like breath. We wade, dive, and film underwater where it’s safe, letting the camera learn the river’s grammar: slow · spread · sink. Along the way, we’ve fished, mapped pools, and held ceremony at my mother’s resting place near the headwaters. The process follows the river’s own pace—surprised by its unfolding.
PRACTICE
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Place before picture: earn the shot by listening.
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Natural light, minimal gear.
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Safety, consent, and respect—for people, fish, banks, and beds.
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Share back: community screenings and partner actions.
INVITATION
This film asks a simple question: What is your body of water?
If we start there—in relationship—then the work ahead is not just
a set of problems to solve, but a home to return to and tend.
Mine happens to be the Feather River.
THE TEAM
ALLEN MYERS
Writer & Director
Allen Myers is a filmmaker and photographer from Paradise, California, whose work sits where grief, ecology, and community meet. After the 2018 Camp Fire, he created the large-format portrait series Out of Ashes and the short A Message from the Future of Paradise. His practice is collaborative and place-based—listening first, then shaping stories with the people who live them. With Feather River, Allen leads a river-led approach to healing: patient images, minimal narration, and hands doing the work.
TANNER STAUSS
Director of Photography
Tanner Stauss is a cinematographer focused on natural-light, location-driven storytelling. On Feather River, he guides the visual language across RED principal photography and river/underwater sequences, favoring quiet, observational frames that let water and landscape speak.
EV DURÁN
Story & Post-Producer
& Additional Cinematography
Raised in Paradise, Ev is the award-winning filmmaker behind All Its Name Implies, a definitive Camp Fire documentary he launched to strong community impact. On Feather River, he steers story continuity, contributes targeted cinematography distribution and outreach—leveraging his Paradise roots to bring the film to festivals, community screenings, and partner networks. See Ev's work at U.T.B. Studios.
TIMELINE
FILMING
MAY 2025 - March 2026
Seasonal returns to the Feather River. Refining script & film concept. Casting, production, filming.
EDITING & SOUND
APRIL 2026 - MAY 2026
Assembly → fine cut → color.
Original score & sound design
FESTIVALS & SCREENINGS
FaLL 2026- ONWARD
Submit to river, environmental, and art doc festivals; release trailer; build press kit & stills.
In partnership with American Rivers, host screenings with a discussion guide and clear actions
HOW TO PLUG IN
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