photo by Ben Hillyer

Phillip Hullquist films while his kayaking buddy Ryan Jeanes ties up the kayaks before the rain sets in Wednesday night at the Natchez Under-the-Hill boat ramp.

Kayakers find Natchez characters for feature-length film

By Ben Hillyer (Contact) | The Natchez Democrat

Published Monday, September 28, 2009

NATCHEZ — Courtney Aldridge didn’t interview for his starring role in Natchez’s newest featuring length film.

The Natchez resident just walked into the Corner Bar Wednesday evening and asked a couple of river-soaked kayakers a simple question.

“Are you kayaking down the River?” Aldridge asked.

At that point the filming began.

Filmmakers and kayakers Ryan Jeanes and Phillip Hullquist floated past the Mississippi River bluffs looking for characters and Wednesday evening was Natchez’s turn to provide Jeanes and Hullquist with personalities for their movie about traveling down the entire length of the river.

From the river’s headwaters in Minnesota, the former English teacher and videographer paddled for 30 days stopping at towns along the way looking for people. On day 31, their sea kayaks docked in Natchez just below Roth Hill Road.

“There have been several books written about accounts going down the Mississippi River, but nobody has done a documentary that encapsulates the adventure and the camaraderie you create with people during such a trip,” Jeanes said. “I have always wanted to know what it would be like go down this entire river.”

But you would be mistaken if you think this film is nothing but a boring series of clips of two men paddling down the river. In fact the majority of the film will not include much paddling at all, Jeanes said.

The focus instead will be on the various people the two have met along the way.

“I have stayed in homes with a family of Seventh Day Adventists and then a week later I was staying with a gay couple who had kids,” Jeanes said.

“People you meet along the river are just from all walks of life and completely different, but they are unified by this body of water,” Hullquist said. “The people are what make the river what it really is.”

This is not the first time the two have created a documentary about their travels. In 2007 the pair thought it would be interesting to see if they could hitchhike across America in one week. So they flew to New York City and filmed their adventure thumbing their way to the West Coast.

The feature-length film of their adventure is currently showing in film festivals across the country.

It took $3,000 to make that film — a pittance compared to the millions of dollars others spend on movies, Hullquist said. The two expect that their newest movie will be a little more expensive, coming in around $5,000.

Despite the costs, the two agreed that the month-long adventure has been priceless.

“It’s been a lot harder than I expected. It’s been physically tough,” Jeanes said. “It has not been a lazy little trip.”

Spending the night in Natchez, the two expected to be paddling toward the Gulf of Mexico Thursday morning looking for other personalities — like Courtney Aldridge — along the way.