Headwaters Down Productions navigates the James

If you know Richmond, you know river people. People who spend every free moment on the James, lounging on rocks at Belle Isle or paddling through whitewater rapids. 

In 2020, UVA grads Will Gemma, Justin Black, and Dietrich Teschner weren’t your average river people. Gemma was a writer in California, Black a touring musician, and Teschner an actor in New York City. But as their lives came to a halt with pandemic lockdowns, the college friends reunited in Richmond and found that the James River ignited their curiosity and taste for adventure. “I was always fascinated by, you know, where does this thing begin?” Black, an RVA native, says. 

So the three of them—plus a few friends—packed up a borrowed canoe, filming supplies included, and set out to find out. They created their first documentary-style, feature-length film, Headwaters Down, about their journey from the Upper James to Richmond, each contributing skills to the writing, music, and direction. The 2021 film met an outpouring of support, but as lockdowns lifted, their lives slowed back to normalcy.  

“But we still needed to finish what we started, which was paddling down the entire James River,” Black says. “So we geared up and changed the canoes for kayaks and left for the Chesapeake Bay and that was it.” Their second film, Tidal River, debuted at The Byrd Theatre in February 2024, following the crew along their 110-mile trip down the rest of the James. 

Now, the trio is deeply embedded into Virginia’s river community. Immersing in what Black calls the “river vibe,” they’re all proud representatives of Virginia’s crucial waterways. 

“I think we realized how essential rivers are to communities,” Teschner says, who adds that the James “feels so much bigger than you, feels older than you. You can’t see the beginning and you can’t see the end.”

Likewise, Headwaters Down Productions doesn’t see the end for their work, hoping to leverage current projects as a starting point for more films on the water. HeadwatersDown.com


This article originally appeared in the August 2024 issue. 

Hope Cartwright
Hope Cartwright is associate editor of Virginia Living. A native of Traverse City, Michigan, she is a recent graduate of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism.
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