hen Ben Masters was a boy, he’d spend time on his great-grandfather’s ranch in the Panhandle, on the north fork of the Long Draw. Masters recalled, “The water table was so high that he went out there with his backhoe into this marshy area, and he dug this two-acre pond for all the kids to fish in.”
Everyone has their waterways. Since its very beginnings, human civilization and settlements have spread along rivers, and we retain a connection to their flow, letting it seep into our sense of identity. Masters himself passed his formative years on the banks of the Canadian and now spends much of his time on the Colorado in his adoptive home of Austin. He explained, “Rivers quite literally define the shape of Texas. They flow through all of our cities. They’re home to some of our greatest joys, and everyone has great memories of their river, whether it’s the Neches or the Nueces, the Sabine or the Rio Grande. Rivers are places that we love, and it just made sense to make a movie that celebrates the rivers that connect us and the wildlife that calls it home.”
The way that rivers have shaped Texas and, in turn, how Texans have shaped their rivers is the subject of his new documentary, Deep in the Heart 2: Texas Rivers, which opens in theatres on Sept. 25. It’s a sequel of sorts to his 2022 documentary, Deep in the Heart, which was an epic overview of the incredible diversity of Texas wildlife narrated by Matthew McConaughey. This time, it’s Austin native Ethan Hawke who guides the audience down the stream of Texas’ aquatic history.
However, that’s not the only name involved with the project that’s synonymous with the Lone Star State; H-E-B was also a key part of getting this film made…