“Miami River- Crocodiles and Cruise Ships”
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During the winter of 2016, I had the pleasure of participating in an ARTE (The European Culture Channel) production segment about the Miami River directed by Academy Award® nominated filmmaker Katja Esson. She has been working with her production team on a new five part documentary series – American Rivers (Amerikas Flüsse) for the European market.
Thanks to artist Robin Haines Merrill of the Upper Room Art Gallery, I was put in touch with the production. Robin has been filming in the Everglades with Katja and is also responsible for bringing traditional Native arts into the public light with the Tribal Arts Project and events like Paddle Up on the Himmarshee Canal.
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This segment shot on the Miami River at night took the film crew past some key historical sights and rarely seen parts of today’s Miami. Katja saw some of my images from a previous trip Kayak Miami – Full moon paddling on the historic Miami River and was interested in filming in the dark industrial shipyard section of the Miami River.
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I chose the meet up and launch at Gerry Curtis Park for ease of access to the historical sites and the industrial shipping zone. Curtis Park has a simple boat ramp into the river that made launching easy, but there was a lot of very slick algal growth on submerged concrete.
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For this trip I brought out ‘Indian Head’, a large 17 foot plastic canoe. The crew wanted to be in the same boat with me and film with all their gear before sunset. This canoe is no speedster, but is very stable and was a great choice. After dark, the production team transitioned onto a powerboat so they could film me paddling as per their requirements. While waiting for the powerboat, the team taped a mic onto my chest, but no one could really tell that I was wearing a “wire”! 😉
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“Miami River- Crocodiles and Cruise Ships”
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Paddling a canoe of this size solo took some decent effort on my part. Going ‘upstream’ there was some current so I switched to a 230cm kayak paddle to make the best of it. Past the Tamiami Canal connector the water was still and flat which added to the eerieness of the experience!
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Interestingly I was both a guide and a subject for the film crew as we cruised the eerie industrial darkness of the Miami River canal!
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“Miami River- Crocodiles and Cruise Ships”
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Special thanks to Katja Esson and a big thanks to Robin Haines Merrill for this opportunity!
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Here’s the direct link to see the film:
“Miami River- Crocodiles and Cruise Ships”
https://vimeo.com/184833828
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Enjoy!
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© 2016 – 2021 Flex Maslan / kayakfari.com / awakenthegrass.com / decoratedreality.com. All original photographs, artworks and music in this portfolio are copyrighted and owned by the artist, Flex Maslan, unless otherwise noted. Any reproduction, modification, publication, transmission, transfer, or exploitation of any of the content, for personal or commercial use, whether in whole or in part, without written permission from the artist is strictly prohibited.
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With that said..
Blessings friends!