FATAL WATERS is a feature length documentary that uncovers the deadly impact of low-head dams in the United States; each year dozens of people drown at dams as small as two feet tall, yet there is no federal oversite for of these dams. The film centers around the tragic death of retired Marine Rodney Buentello in 2016 at a dam in Bandera, TX, and delves into the devastating toll that these structures have annually on individuals and communities.
About the Filmmaker
RAY SANTISTEBAN (DIRECTOR, PRODUCER) is an award-winning documentary filmmaker whose work has aired nationally and internationally on public television. His work focuses on political subjects and artist profiles, addressing the themes of justice, memory, and personal transformation.
A graduate of NYU’s film and TV program, his documentaries include Voices From Texas (Director, Producer) in 2003, Visiones: Latino Art And Culture In The U.S. (Senior Producer) a three hour PBS series nationally broadcast in Oct. 2004. His hour documentary, The First Rainbow Coalition, was broadcast nationally on the PBS series Independent Lens in 2020. In late 2020, his short video Vincent Valdez: The Beginning is Near, was part of American Masters/Firelight Medias web series: In the Making. In 2021 he was a segment producer on WNET’s nationally broadcast PBS special: Preserving Democracy.
Awards garnered include 1992 Student Academy Award (information division), New York Foundation for the Arts Media Fellowship, 1993, 1996 “Faculty of the Year” Award from the Chicano Studies Program, UW Madison, 2005 Rockefeller Film and Video Fellowship, a 2008 San Antonio Artists Foundation Award, and a 2016 Tobin Award for Artistic Excellence. In 2017 he garnered Firelight Media Documentary Fellowship. He lives in San Antonio, Texas.
