[upbeat instrumental music]
- When I got here 28 years ago
we had a huge rainstorm every month,
even during the dry season.
This year it was terribly dry.
It stopped raining at the end of December
and hasn't rained a drop since.
January, February, March, April, May, June,
July, August, September.
Nine months of no rain.
And it's heartbreaking
because I know what's coming after that.
It's gonna get worse and worse and worse.
[upbeat instrumental music]
- Hi, welcome to Director's Cut .
I'm Pete Schwaba
and we just saw a clip from the documentary
From Mass to the Mountain ,
a film that tells the story of Padre Pablo,
a Panamanian priest originally from Ripon, Wisconsin
who works tirelessly to bring clean drinking water
to an impoverished region of eastern Panama.
I'm joined today by filmmakers
Kurt Sensenbrenner and Colin Sytsma.
Gentlemen, welcome to Director's Cut .
- Thanks. - Good to have you guys here.
Alright so tell us about,
it's a great character, Padre Pablo.
Tell us about him and your connection to him.
- Yeah, so Padre Pablo's from, like you said,
Ripon, Wisconsin,
my hometown as well
and he's kind of a mini-celebrity
based on his projects and everything.
He's got a pretty good following in Ripon
and I heard about him growing up throughout the years
and thought he had a really interesting story
and wanted to see what he was all about
and went down there as a junior in film school
at UW-Milwaukee
and he was starting this huge project,
kind of his life's work
and luckily I had my camera and just started filming.
- And that's how this project came to be?
That was the first you started?
- Yeah, in 2011 my first trip down there
he was just had a tease of an idea for the dam
and it really kind of blossomed
and kept growing throughout the years
and I knew I had to go back
because it's rare to catch something
in its infancy like that.
- Yeah, and you just went down to help.
You didn't have the intention of starting
to make a documentary?
- Right, I went down as a volunteer
just to help with whatever building project
he had at the time
and it just happened to be this big project
and I just started shooting.
It's an interesting place, he's an interesting person
and it's pretty easy to just film.
- Yeah, you said he has a big following in Ripon.
When he comes back home
do the masses sell out really quickly or
do you still get room?
Does he stay mass still in Ripon?
Does he come back and do work there, too,
or is he strictly in Panama.
- He does, yeah.
When he comes back he's pretty booked solid
visiting with people, family friends,
but he also does guest masses
and preaches at different parishes throughout the area.
- Very cool, we'll let's take a look
at another clip from The Mass to the Mountain .
- Can you imagine getting up
and not having water to take a shower for three weeks
or four weeks or not even water for a cup of coffee.
As they kept saying, Padre,
we don't even have enough water for a cup of coffee.
[rooster crows]
- [Kurt] Why can't we just drill wells for people
like in the states?
- Wells do not work in this area
because when Panama came up out of the ocean
there was all this ocean water
trapped in between these two mountain ranges
on both sides of us
and when the water evaporated it left the salt
and so when you drill a well the water comes out salty.
So the only thing we can rely on right now
is that water that falls up in the mountains,
preserve the watershed, collect the water up there
and then pipe it down to the communities.
That's our only source of drinking water
because that is where the rains fall
and the water comes down into the river
and that's where we're building a dam
because during the long dry season the river dries up
and there's no water.
So the dam will provide water
at the times when the river dries up.
- That's a beautiful shot there.
Talk about your photography
and getting those aerial shots.
- Yeah, so we used.
- He immediately deferred to you.
Does that mean you're the one responsible
for the big shots?
- Well yeah, so Kurt came to me a few years ago
asking to help expand this film.
He got his masters with this film
at Hofstra University in New York
and I looked at a 20-minute piece at that point
and was kind of like,
we need to get a drone down there
to really visualize this place
so we can tell a visual story.
And there was so much that we left out of the film
that we wanted to put in there
just 'cause it was so beautiful.
- Just because you have the photography
and the shots like that, right?
Yeah, how do you do that?
When you're making a film like this
and you're telling a story that's,
a lot of it is visual because it's a beautiful country,
how do you make that decision to leave shots like that out
or do you just say, to heck with it,
we're putting 'em in 'cause they're great shots.
- Yeah, I mean, a lot of it
is just like picking and choosing
and really deciding what tells the story
and what we need.
- You have a great shot in the film.
It's at night and there's a moon over a house.
Is that something you stumble on and get lucky
in one of those magic filmmaking moments
or was that a conscious,
'cause I think you were following one of the characters
at the time,
it wasn't just an establishing shot.
- Yeah, so that was about 5:00 AM
and I remember that was the first time
that I actually got down to Panama
and I was like hey, the moon's out right above
where Padre Pablo is living.
Should I shoot that?
And I was like, "Yeah, I should shoot that.
That's the reason I came down here."
And so I put on my long lens and got that.
It turned out to work out really nice.
- I'm guessing he became Padre Pablo
when he moved to Panama
and they didn't call him that in Ripon.
Was it Father Paul or what was he?
- Yeah, Father Wally is how he's kind of known
throughout the states
but his middle name is Paul
and so down there the name Wally or Walter
doesn't really exist
so they went with Pablo, Spanish for Paul,
and so they call him Padre Pablo.
And I asked him very early on
what does he prefer to be called
and he said I prefer Padre, I'm used to it,
so I just call him Padre Pablo.
- And is he down there for the duration now?
Is he gonna spend the rest of his life down there
since he's so ingrained in the community now?
- He's hesitant to answer that question fully
but yeah, he spends 12 and a half months
out of the year down there
or 11 and a half months out of the year down there.
So yeah, that's his family, that's his community
and I think.
- [Pete] And he's down so much.
- It's hard for him to abandon all these different projects.
It's not just these water products and the aqueducts.
It's building schools, building churches,
he's built hospitals
and it's like, a lot of infrastructure
is there because of him
because he has the tools to do it
and he has these very unique connections
to the United States
where he's able to bring down
large manufacturing equipment
and all sorts of different things.
- So he built a dam down there
to get better drinking water.
How long did that take?
Talk about that process
and how he built a little bit every year
and how long did it take?
- So in 2008 they actually put
a culvert in that site,
so they found a site with two giant boulders,
things that they could kind of anchor this
project to, 'cause without that
it would just be washed downstream.
It's mud, it's clay, it's the rainforest.
So once they found the perfect site,
2008 they put this culvert in
and then after that it
it's really just two weeks out of the year every January
until the project's done.
- Wow.
- And as projects do and as films do
it kind of kept growing.
It was like well, if we could go a little higher next year
then we'd be done
and then we'd come down expecting to be done.
Well, if we can go a little higher next year
then it will be done.
- [Pete] That's great.
- So six years of pouring throughout two weeks,
pouring cement for those two weeks,
six years it was finally done and [laughs]
we could walk away sort of from it.
- And you could say
that they're not even quite finished.
They're still bulldozing out the back parts of the dam
so more water can be gathered there.
Padre's never done [laughs].
- Let's take another look at a clip from the film.
- Farmers are so sick and tired
of farming, a bunch of 'em,
and the rich teak companies come up and say,
"Hey, we'll give you $2,000 an acre for your farm."
In come a stack of $100,000
and these poor farmers
have never seen $100,000 in their life,
and they say, "Oh, where do I sign?" [laughs]
and then they cut down every tree on the farm
and plant teak.
Teak is a fast growing wood
but this is for commercial purposes.
It's not reforestation, per se,
it's for commercial tree farming.
The problem with teak is that during the dry summer months
they loose every single leaf.
They're just, they're a stick with branches on it
sticking up all over.
The teak tree does not give off humidity
during the summer months
like the espavé or some of the native varieties
which causes clouds and it drills in the water
from the ocean.
Teak does the opposite.
It makes the whole thing drier and drier and drier.
[soft instrumental music]
Thousands and thousands of acres have been planted
in this area.
I mean the program on reforestation is wonderful
but plant native varieties of trees
but how much money is in that?
- Talk a little bit about that.
That's a beautiful shot there.
Talk about, you said yesterday when we spoke
you lost one of your drones
and that's gotta be a horror of filmmaking.
Talk about that process and getting those shots.
- Yeah, it was actually lost luggage. [laughs]
- So we went down to Panama
specifically to get three of those shots right there
and it was a weekend
where we went, I believe it was
to Houston from Milwaukee
and then from Houston to Panama
and we hired a drone operator
and he's like oh, we should bring and extra drone
which was a great idea
because one got lost, right,
and then we got down there late
and tried to get up to where Padre Pablo's foundation is
and there was a bunch of people staying
at where we were supposed to be staying.
He had gotten the date wrong.
- He was having a retreat,
a community retreat with all the kids,
and they were staying there
kind of like an overnight camp.
So we couldn't stay there. [laughs]
- And it was like 11, 12 at night
and also there had been a power outage
for the last couple days
so there was no light anywhere.
So we ended up sleeping in a car
on the side of the Pan-American Highway that night
and then we got up at 6:00 AM,
got those shots that you see
that are really dry looking shots
that you fade in from the green to the brown,
drone shots of the teak,
and then within an hour two it started raining
and so we weren't able to film anything after that.
- We had about a two hour window
to get all the shots we needed
and then it just started pouring.
- You guys probably kicked back
with a big beer that night after you got those shots.
- It was a stressful trip, yeah.
- You also said you got sick during the filming.
Talk a little bit about that.
That's a challenge you probably don't anticipate
when you go down there.
- Especially for the short amount of time,
since it's only two weeks out of the year
and in the drone trip case
we had to go outside of that two week window
because when we're there it's usually kind of lush
and the dry season is just ending,
or the rainy season is just ending
so it's kind of green, it's nice,
and then we had to go back in May
to get these dry shots
and when you're going outside of that two week window
you then encounter bugs and mosquitoes
that we really don't encounter in January when we go
and so unluckily enough
we got bit by some mosquitoes carrying Dengue Fever
which is a tropical disease
and it was two separate times [laughs].
- Really?
- Yeah, I think we went down for six days once
and then I came back
and then I was gonna fly right to New York
to meet Curt and start editing what we had shot
and I had got sick on the plane
and so I basically sat in Curt's bed
for the entire time I was in New York City
and just sweated out, I'm sorry about that, by the way.
- Had to burn the mattress.
- But yeah, and it ended up being
even a little bit worse for Curt
'cause he ended up getting walking pneumonia
as a result of that.
- Dengue Fever lowers your immune system a lot
while you have it
so I contracted pneumonia while I had Dengue Fever
and it was a, it was a rough two months or so.
- Yeah, sounds like it
and Deep Woods Off does nothing with these mosquitoes?
Is there anything you can do to prevent it?
- I mean, you try.
- That could really mess up your schedule while you're shooting.
- Yeah, I mean you try and we did have a lot of bug spray
and 100% DEET,
but once you walk into the grass there
there's all sorts of sand fleas and mosquitoes
and it's just, it's inevitable
that you're gonna get bit by something.
- What I'm hearing
is that there's not gonna be a sequel.
[laughter]
Okay, let's see another clip from From Mass to the Mountain .
- We don't have another sugar.
You gotta be kidding.
- Yeah, I don't know.
[background chatter]
[speaking Spanish]
[laughter]
[speaking Spanish]
[laughter]
- If you come next year you're gonna see it working.
- That's a whole year.
[speaking Spanish]
- They're gonna send you a photo by the internet.
- That's been working on them bags.
- From the skin?
- From this and the cement.
- You need to clean up.
The owners are crick.
[speaking Spanish]
- Tell him we could roll him and run in them barrels.
- In what?
- One of them water barrels?
- Roll him? - Down the hill.
- Roll him to get him cleaned up.
- Down the hill.
[speaking Spanish]
[laughter]
- Like a wash machine.
- Okay, guys, let's get out of here.
- So talk about the challenges
that Padre Pablo faced in building this infrastructure,
specifically the dam, and the challenges he faced.
You've got farmers selling their land
for money that they need,
you got corrupt politicians it looks like.
Was he looked at as an adversary at times,
like did people not want this to happen?
Or, talk about those challenges that he faced.
- Yeah, I mean, just focusing on the dam project
and that, he saw a lot of pushback from the people
that were bordering the land he was trying to protect
because they use that as hunting land,
they use that for cultivation.
They saw it as kind of communal space
that they could kind of go in and out of
and take wood from.
And when you're preventing someone's source of income
and source of food for a family
it can get kind of combative understandably
and so he dealt with that pretty delicately
but he's had experience throughout the years
of trying to protect watersheds in other areas,
trying to help out the indigenous people as well
and protect their land.
So it wasn't a new struggle for him on that front.
- And he eventually got it done.
You have a great clip where he meets with the politicians
and they all seem on board.
So what took so long to get this done?
There's a great scene you have in the film
where he, I think he was new to Panama
and he gets offered a glass of water and he takes it
and there's little worms in the water.
First of all, did he drink it?
I have to ask 'cause you never.
- Yes.
- He drank it?
- That was his source of water, his shared source of water
for at least six months to a year
while he was down there, yeah.
- So that's crazy that it took him that long
to get the go ahead to bring clean water to the region.
- There's a huge lack of accountability
in this region of eastern Panama
because a lot of these contractors
will get a contract with the government
and go up there to build an aqueduct or a road
and they'll just pay someone to sign off on it
and then once they do that they get the money
and they pocket a lot of it.
And who suffers the most, right,
it's the people of the area
and the poor just continue to get poorer.
And that's one huge issue
that has a ton of different facets to it.
It's the roads, it's the aqueducts,
it's anything that's being built as far as infrastructure.
- Okay now tell us about these generous people
that helped and sent equipment down there.
I mean that was free of charge, right,
and the workers,
was it the same workers every year
that came down to help?
- Yeah, there was a lot of people
that have gone down year after year.
I think Robin Wollenfang.
- Wollenfang.
- Wollenfang is-- how many years has she gone down?
It's at least.
- 12 probably.
There's a core group I would say
that kind of regularly go down and help
because of specific expertise.
There are people that go down for painting projects.
There are engineers who go down for electrical.
There's contractors who go down
who help really survey and make sure the dam
is up to their code at least.
There's no OSHA but... [laughs]
- Right.
These contractors who go down,
are they giving their time
or is it the company they work for
is paying them to be down there.
Where is the generosity
or is it just the volunteer issue, corporations?
- It's all volunteer-based as far as labor
and a lot of the funding is coming from private donors,
it's coming from church donations, separate collections,
but also Rotary International has been huge
in offering money and doing matching grants and things
from the local chapters in the Wisconsin
but also internationally, Rotary International
has helped with that.
There have been, Villanova University
offers engineers, engineering students
to help with their water initiatives.
So he has a lot of support
and most of it's volunteer and charity.
I know he pays his workers,
the locals who are there for work get paid
but all the support internationally is volunteer.
- Let's take another look at a clip
from From Mass to the Mountain .
[instrumental Latin music]
[singing in Spanish]
[cheers and applause]
[speaking Spanish]
- Talk about your music a little bit.
Great music there.
Did you guys do that yourselves?
Did you hire a composer?
- Yeah, we're not that talented.
Yeah we got a great sound person
that I've worked with freelance in New York.
Brian Flood did the original mix and all original music.
So he recorded that with his guitar in his room
and then added strings from sound libraries and things
and got people to play live recordings
and he's the master behind all of it.
- And with a name like Flood
you gotta bring him into the.
- [Laughs] Hands were tied at that point.
- The dam project, yeah.
So did any of these locals
express any desire to come to Wisconsin and see Ripon
or is that...
- Yeah, it's kind of become almost a sister city
or sister community.
There's a shared comradery
and a few Panamanians have come to the states
for study and things like that from that area
but I don't think any have been up to Ripon. [laughs]
- I think Nelson has.
- Has he?
- Yeah, I think Nelson,
and we follow him a little bit in the film,
he's come back with Padre once I believe.
Yeah 'cause I asked about that.
- So what are things like now in that region?
Have they just sort of acclimated to,
are they used to having clean water now?
Is there more to be done or is it,
are they in good shape?
- Well there's, unfortunately there's always something
to be done.
This is, according to Padre,
it's the largest rural aque-system in Central America
and because of the environment and the challenges there
there's always maintenance to be done so.
This past January we were down there working on the tank
that the water from the dam goes down 23 km of pipe
to these cisterns that you see in the film
and so settling issues, they're built on clay,
things like that,
they have to be re concreted and patched up
and so there's always little projects
of maintenance and things like that to be done.
- And are you surprised he still calls?
Do you ever get the call from Padre Pablo
and you're like, "Ah, come on, hello.
What now?" [laughs]
We have about 30 seconds left.
What's next for Padre Pablo
and what's next for you guys?
- Padre is still for all intents and purposes
working on water projects down there.
It's always a challenge.
And I'm going back to Brooklyn and working on other films,
but hopefully.
- Yeah, I think it's a growing population in Panama
so the need for water is gonna be coming ever more present.
- [Pete] It's a full time job for him, yeah.
- And so I think he's worried
about what's gonna happen after that
and once he passes away
and I know he thinks about that.
- Someone's gotta carry the torch.
Well it was great having you guys.
Nice work in the film and thanks for being here today.
- Thanks for having us. - Yeah, thanks.
- You got it.
And thank you for watching Director's Cut .
For more information on From Mass to the Mountain
please go to wpt.org and click on Director's Cut .
While you're there send us an email
or find out how to submit a film.
Also, don't forget to like WPT on Facebook
or follow us on Twitter.
I'm Pete Schwaba
and I don't even drink tap water.
We'll see you next time on Director's Cut .
- Water,
a gift from God
that we gotta fight to preserve.
And if you don't have anything to die for,
do you have anything to live for?