by Brent Eades
Alexandra Cousteau was in town today with her husband and daughter and a multinational film crew to shoot segments of an upcoming documentary that will feature our own Mississippi River.
Alexandra is the granddaughter of the renowned oceanographer and environmentalist Jacques Cousteau. She heads the Washington-based Blue Legacy foundation, which is “dedicated to advocating the importance of conservation and sustainable management of water in order to preserve a healthy planet.”
The documentary is about the Ottawa River and its tributaries, focusing on issues of waterway management and conservation. The Mississippi River segment is set against the backdrop of the debate about the proposed Enerdu hydroelectric project here in Almonte.
The film crew — assembled from France, Peru, Canada, the US and England — shot locations in Almonte, and then moved to a base at Mike and Debbie O’Malley’s home in Appleton. They filmed a conversation between Cousteau and O’Malley, framed by the submerged and dying forests that comprise the waterfront on that stretch of our river.
