Beginning at origins in the Eastern Sierra Nevada, Psychohydrography tracks the flow of water, step-by-step, through Owens Valley, aqueducts, and concrete troughs in the city of Los Angeles, to Long Beach delta and the Pacific Ocean. Constructed from tens of thousands of still images and their neighboring sounds, the film is also a journey through a natural and industrial topography of striking conflicts and contradictions. In its contemplation of the natural process of an essential element of life, and the banal, unseen system that supplies Los Angeles its water, Psychohydrography is a meditation on our dependence on and alienation from the natural world.

Runtime: 63 minutes
Director: Peter Bo Rappmund
Content Rating: Not Rated
Genre: Documentary, Animation

After the Film Panel Discussion

Join us after the film for a panel discussion featuring Courtney Crosson, architect, associate professor, and Director of the Drachman Institute at the University of Arizona; Brook Muller, Dean of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte College of Arts + Architecture and Professor in the School of Architecture; John Searby, Executive Director at Catawba Riverkeeper; and moderator Thomas Forget. 

Tickets

Tickets are $8 members, $10 nonmembers, and $5 with valid school I.D. Cash bar available in the Bechtler lobby starting at 6:00 PM followed by the presentation and film screening in the Knight Theater at 7 PM. Purchase tickets online at Bechtler.org or call 704.353.9209.

Buy Tickets Here

Get to know Brook Muller

Brook Muller is Dean of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte College of Arts + Architecture and Professor in the School of Architecture. His research and practice focus on the design implications of resilient, ecologically responsive urban water systems. Dean Muller is author of Blue Architecture: Water, Design, and Environmental Futures (University of Texas Press, 2022) and Ecology and the Architectural Imagination (Routledge, 2014). With Behnisch & Partner Architects of Stuttgart, Germany, he served as co-project leader for the design of the National Institute for Forestry and Nature Research (IBN) in Wageningen, The Netherlands, a European Union pilot project for environmentally friendly building (1993-1996). Dean Muller has worked on water and sustainable development focused projects in Egypt, the Madeira Islands, and Tanzania.

Get to know Courtney Crosson

Courtney Crosson is a licensed architect, associate professor, and Director of the Drachman Institute at the University of Arizona, where she teaches classes on water in the built environment and community outreach studios. Her current research advances decentralized water systems to address pressing problems facing cities—whether water scarcity in the U.S. Southwest or safe and affordable water access in informal settlements in Nairobi, Kenya. She is the Principal Investigator on a four-year National Science Foundation grant to investigate how to transition cities in the US Southwest to a net zero urban water future.  Her work has been published in peer-reviewed journals in architecture, engineering and planning.  She has won numerous national awards for her teaching, outreach and research. 

Get to know John Searby

As Executive Director of the Catawba Riverkeeper, John is responsible for overall leadership and serves as primary fundraiser, visionary, & relationship developer. John brings a diverse background in coaching, athletic administration, fundraising, design, marketing, sponsorship planning, and sales management to the Catawba Riverkeeper. He leverages these experiences to build an organization that uses engagement with the water to fund protection of the water.

In addition, John serves the Charlotte region and Catawba-Wateree River Basin as a Member of the Board of Directors of the Carolina Raptor Center, the Vice President of the Catawba-Wateree Relicensing Coalition, a member of the Gaston County Travel & Tourism Board of Advisors, a member of the Pharr Family YMCA Board of Advisors, and as Chairman of the the South Fork River Health Committee.