Mutual Aid in the Backcountry
A short film and portrait collection about the history of the Whale Foundation
The Thalweg is a small non-profit arts collective and production house focused on wild landscapes. As many of us are apart of the guiding community as creatives, we would like to preserve and tell the story of the founding community members of the Whale Foundation, who built resilience and care into our community. The Thalweg will make a short film documenting the story through partnering with photographer Margeaux Bestard, editor Lis McGuirk, and Sandcast Media:Harlan Taney, Justin Clifton, and Blake McCord. This film, Mutual Aid in the Backcountry, is unique in its attention to the history of the Grand Canyon guiding community, which has not yet been well documented. Above all else, the story is important because of its focus on our alternative community that, wrestling with mental health issues, came together to overcome a lack of cultural resources to support one another. It is a story of finding a way from the darkness and overcoming societal challenges.
The founders of the Whale Foundation saw a need for greater access to mental health in the community. Through ingenuity, they pulled together their resources and built a foundation akin to mutual aid today. Since its inception in 1996, this small effort has grown into a foundational resource in the Grand Canyon guiding community. Their services now include funding for counseling/therapy, health care stipends, and continued education scholarships.
We plan to document the history of the Whale Foundation through portraiture, a short film, and interviews. Margeaux plans to document each interview with a still portrait that will be translated into print media. Lis will be our on-staff writer to accompany the founders' portraits published through The Thalweg's annual publication and Grand Canyon River Guide's Boatman's Quarterly Review. We will gather stories and archival information while planning an event in Sedona in the spring of 2025 to bring the founding members of The Whale Foundation together. There will be food, storytelling, and a rekindling of the folks who laid the groundwork for the Whale Foundation. We plan to film official interviews at this event, which will be built into a short film produced by Sandcast Media.
In a world that is becoming increasingly complicated, with constant news of war and the price of groceries climbing every day, we need grass-roots success stories like the creation of The Whale Foundation to remind us of the power of community. Remembering that we can only grow from the knowledge and acknowledgment of our history, we want to highlight the stories of the people who created a path toward providing health and longevity in our community.
The majority of our funding is coming through grants - but we are coming up a little short. We appreciate any in-kind donations,
the team at Mutual Aid in the Backcountry
Meet Our Partners
Sandcast Media, LLC is a production company based in Flagstaff, AZ. As a company we have produced both independent documentaries that have gone on to win awards around the world, and commercial media for organizations like National Geographic, Discovery, TNT Sports and HBO. Being rooted in Northern Arizona, much of our work has centered around the Grand Canyon and the Colorado River. Additionally, we work collaboratively with many local organizations and most recently completed the film “OMEN” in collaboration with Dark Sky Aerial.
Our philosophy is simple. Do good work that honors the people and places we tell stories about. Our team is made up of Harlan Taney, Blake McCord and Justin Clifton. Both Harlan and Justin were born here in Flagstaff before heading out into the world to gain the skills that they have brought back to their beloved community. Their third partner, Blake, decided to make Flagstaff home after receiving his degree from NAU.
When Margeaux, Seneca and Lis approached us with the possibility of working together on this documentary, we knew right away that this was a project we had to create. As an accomplished professional Grand Canyon river guide, Harlan has a unique perspective on the importance of the Whale foundation. Having benefited from the services it offers, this story strikes a personal note for him. Especially since many of the individuals who started Whale were personal mentors and colleagues of Harlan’s for years.
As guides grow older and the history of this amazing act of mutual aid begins to fade away, we believe it is vital to tell the story of how a community came together to make the world a little bit better for one another. In Paul Hawken’s book “Blessed Unrest” he says “What I see everywhere in the world are ordinary people willing to confront despair, power, and incalculable odds in order to restore some semblance of grace, justice, and beauty to this world.” “First we need to decide what needs to be done. Then we do it. And then we ask if it is possible.” We will go one step further and say that it’s vital to honor those who stepped up to the challenge they saw in their community in order to remind the next generation why it’s important and hopefully inspire them to, at a minimum, improve upon what was started.
Flagstaff is home to a huge community of river runners and guides. This industry helps to create a unique and vibrant tapestry of humans that help to make Flagstaff so special. To honor them is to honor a big part of our ongoing history and our understanding of how we interact with the landscape around us. By documenting this story, we are bringing forth the history of collective responsibility that has so rooted the river community to the next generations of boaters and guides. We are also saying to those who have breathed life into Whale, “We see you, we appreciate you, and we are grateful to you for showing us the beauty of community.”
We are thrilled to be working with three unbelievably talented co-creators like Margeaux, Seneca and Lis. Their vision for this story, and passion for the content are going to make the entire project such a joy to create. We share in our passion for this community and for honoring the pathmakers who saw an opportunity to do something more. Your support will mean so much to the success of our film. Thank you for your consideration, and for continuing to support the arts in Coconino County.
Warm Regards,
Justin Clifton
Margeaux Bestard’s education began at Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara, California, and was later refined by mentors, self-discipline, and experimentation. After moving from Los Angeles to the edge of the Grand Canyon, the Colorado River became a backdrop for her work. Over the past 20 years she has worked to capture the intimate relationship between nature and humans in her fine art work. In her portrait practice, she works to help her subjects discover the beauty of self love in their own story.