Emmy-winning professor to debut new documentary Friday
Edward Humphrys
Issue date: 11/12/08 Section: News
"The Buffalo River begins and ends in a wilderness. She is born in the Ozark Mountains … springing from the hills and into rock-framed valleys carved by weather and ageless time. It is a river of firsts, with a picturesque landscape like no other … meandering 148 miles through canyons and forest until she empties into another river known as the White."
So begins filmmaker Larry Foley's new documentary, "The Buffalo Flows," which will have its Northwest Arkansas premiere 7 p.m. Friday, Nov. 14, as part of the Northwest Arkansas Documentary Film Festival. Foley, a two-time Emmy award-winning filmmaker, is a professor of journalism at the UA.
"The Buffalo Flows," written and produced by Foley, includes a cast of Arkansas talent in the production crew. Academy-Award winner Ray McKinnon from Little Rock provides narration accompanied by an original score by Fayetteville composer James Greeson set against the photography of Trey Marley, another Fayetteville resident.
The film is an attempt to capture the multi-dimensional quality and beauty of the Buffalo River through creative vision of a man all too familiar with its allure.
"I went on a camping trip to the Buffalo when I was a child with my parents and my sister," Foley said in a Monday interview. "I went again in college when I was at the University of Arkansas. I took my wife and children to the Buffalo River. It is a beautiful, serene place."
It is this deep respect and intimate connection that inspired Foley to explore the Buffalo in a more familiar and open way than had been done in other films about the iconic Arkansas River.
"The Buffalo River was saved from being dammed unlike so many other streams and rivers at the time," Foley said. "There was a good fight to save it, and that is certainly in my film, but the main focus is what it is that we saved.
"What is unique about the Buffalo is that it's not just a river, it's not just a national river and it's not just the site of an early environmental victory for the country," he said. "There's not just one thing that makes the Buffalo so special, and the film captures this perfectly. The film is a story about the bluffs, the trees, the flowers and the birds. It's about the hiking trails and the culture. It's about the people who have lived on the Buffalo in the Boxley Valley for generations. It's a story about what was saved."
Foley, who has previously won a Mid-American Emmy, premiered the documentary at the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival last month.
"I have a special affection for this river, just as many other people do," he said. "I intended the film for people who have been to the Buffalo River many times to reveal to them something they had never seen. I also intended it for people who have never been to the Buffalo or had never heard of it.
"I wanted to expose it differently, so that people would look at the trees, flowers and the people in a new way."
So begins filmmaker Larry Foley's new documentary, "The Buffalo Flows," which will have its Northwest Arkansas premiere 7 p.m. Friday, Nov. 14, as part of the Northwest Arkansas Documentary Film Festival. Foley, a two-time Emmy award-winning filmmaker, is a professor of journalism at the UA.
"The Buffalo Flows," written and produced by Foley, includes a cast of Arkansas talent in the production crew. Academy-Award winner Ray McKinnon from Little Rock provides narration accompanied by an original score by Fayetteville composer James Greeson set against the photography of Trey Marley, another Fayetteville resident.
The film is an attempt to capture the multi-dimensional quality and beauty of the Buffalo River through creative vision of a man all too familiar with its allure.
"I went on a camping trip to the Buffalo when I was a child with my parents and my sister," Foley said in a Monday interview. "I went again in college when I was at the University of Arkansas. I took my wife and children to the Buffalo River. It is a beautiful, serene place."
It is this deep respect and intimate connection that inspired Foley to explore the Buffalo in a more familiar and open way than had been done in other films about the iconic Arkansas River.
"The Buffalo River was saved from being dammed unlike so many other streams and rivers at the time," Foley said. "There was a good fight to save it, and that is certainly in my film, but the main focus is what it is that we saved.
"What is unique about the Buffalo is that it's not just a river, it's not just a national river and it's not just the site of an early environmental victory for the country," he said. "There's not just one thing that makes the Buffalo so special, and the film captures this perfectly. The film is a story about the bluffs, the trees, the flowers and the birds. It's about the hiking trails and the culture. It's about the people who have lived on the Buffalo in the Boxley Valley for generations. It's a story about what was saved."
Foley, who has previously won a Mid-American Emmy, premiered the documentary at the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival last month.
"I have a special affection for this river, just as many other people do," he said. "I intended the film for people who have been to the Buffalo River many times to reveal to them something they had never seen. I also intended it for people who have never been to the Buffalo or had never heard of it.
"I wanted to expose it differently, so that people would look at the trees, flowers and the people in a new way."
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