For more than 20 years, Sally Bethea was the voice of the Chattahoochee River in Atlanta. Back in the early 1990s, hardly anyone wanted anything to do with this urban river once it flowed through the city. For nearly 60 miles downstream it was off-putting and off-limits because of sewage, litter, runoff and erosion.
Starting in 1994, Sally was named Chattahoochee Riverkeeper and took charge. She and her organization with downstream communities sued the City of Atlanta under the Clean Water Act. With the collaboration and leadership of Mayor Shirley Franklin (aka The Sewer Mayor), the city invested a whopping $4 billion to upgrade the sewer and water system.
Sally and Shirley weren’t the only ones fighting for the river. In the 1970s, members of the Junior League led by Kay McKenzie started Friends of the River. Jimmy Carter defended the river vigorously for over a decade. Now we have a new generation of environmental leaders not only on the Chattahoochee but also the South and Flint Rivers.
The documentary (40 min.) takes a more personal look at Sally, one of the first women riverkeepers in the U.S. It's about how she stepped up to become the face of the river at a pivotal moment in Atlanta's development, while also being a single parent to two sons. How she teamed up with Atlanta mayor Shirley Franklin, the first Black female mayor of a major southern city, to change the course of the river's future.
Sally Bethea and Shirley Franklin's story is also part of a bigger picture of Atlanta women who have led -- and continue to lead -- efforts to protect our rivers and streams.
No one owns the water.
It belongs to all of us.
The film provides a call to action for others to get involved in their communities following the example of these dedicated river advocates.
Saving the Chattahoochee is co-sponsored by Georgia Humanities, University of Georgia Special Collections, and WSB-TV.
Bethea’s memoir, Keeping the Chattahoochee, was published in 2023 by University of Georgia Press.
EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS
Dave Kirkpatrick (Executive Producer, Carville: Winning is Everything, Stupid!)
Alicia Macbeth Jacobs (Executive Producer, Lillian Smith: Breaking the Silence)
Joe Boris (Executive Producer, Northside Tavern: The Mostly True Account of the Golden Age of Atlanta’s Most Exquisite Blues Dive)
ASSOCIATE PRODUCER
Patricia Bell-Scott (Author, The Firebrand and the First Lady: Portrait of a Friendship: Pauli Murray, Eleanor Roosevelt, and the Struggle for Social Justice (Knopf, 2016)
Extra Extra!
Additional conversation between former Atlanta mayor Shirley Franklin and Sally Bethea (GPTV, May 1, 2024)
Additional conversation with current Chattahoochee Riverkeeper Jason Ulseth (WABE, July 2, 2024)
More Video Resources
Environmental Justice in Atlanta
West Atlanta Watershed Alliance: A Conversation with Na’Taki Osborne Jelks and Darryl Haddock
News/Media
Atlantans may not know it, but the city owes women a debt of gratitude for not letting the metro area slide into a hellscape of toxic effluence.
“Saving the Chattahoochee,” a new documentary film from Hal Jacobs, celebrates the women behind the effort to save the city’s neglected waterway, a river that has been alternately ignored or treated as an open-air toilet.
Audience Feedback
—We give the film 5 stars, applauding its heartfelt portrayal of Bethea's resilience and the transformative partnership between Bethea and Mayor Franklin in safeguarding Atlanta's water resources. Bonus stars for the significant trailblazing role both women played in empowering future female leaders in these spaces! [Chattahoochee National Park Conservancy]
— I have lived on the stretch of the Chattahoochee in Nacoochee Valley for nearly 50 years, joined CRK in the beginning, and would read its newsletter. But the moving waters in your film really took us down stream to see how it was, how it is, and how to do what we can to heal the Chattahoochee River.
— Your film is a treasure for Sally and for all of us who care deeply for the environment.
— I could hear people gasping, people laughing with delight (Jimmy Carter jumping into the river!), people affirming the many truths with “um hmms!” —what an engaged, moved, enlightened audience.
— The fact that you interspersed humor helped lighten the mood and the film, like the book, offered a message of hope.
— My big takeaway from the night was the importance of infrastructure literacy. The stuff is just so complicated, and most of it we don't see anyway, but if a greater share of the public understood their connection to it, things like sewer upgrades and maintenance wouldn't be such a big lift.
— I can't remember what anybody wore on the runway; the film was that good.
Sally Bethea and Hal Jacobs at the 2024 Macon Film Festival
Public Screenings & Licensing
ON-LINE SCREENING
PAST SCREENINGS
January 31, 2024, 7 p.m. | Tara Theater, Atlanta, Ga. | $15 | SOLD OUT
February 8, 2024, 6 p.m. | Oakfuskee Conservation Center on West Point Lake | $15
February 25, 2024, 2 p.m. | Sautee Nacoochee Center | $10
March 22, 2024, 7 p.m. | Chattahoochee Nature Center | $15
April 3, 2024 | Agnes Scott EcoFilm Festival (exploring themes of race and the environment, biodiversity and climate change, and conservation and environmental justice through film screenings and discussion)
April 14, 2024, 2:30 p.m. | Chattahoochee Nature Center | Free
April 16, 2024, 6 p.m. | Columbus Public Library | Free
April 19, 2024, 7 p.m. | Waller’s Coffee Shop, Decatur, Ga. | $15
April 22, 2024, 7 p.m. & 11 p.m. | GPB-TV Broadcast
April 23, 2024, 11 a.m. | LaGrange College, Beason Recital Hall
May 20, 2024, 5:30 p.m. | Hall County Library | Free
June 19, 2024 | Paddle Georgia | Strand Theatre, Jesup, Ga.
August 12, 2024, 11 a.m. | Gwinnett County Public Library | Includes talkback with Sally Bethea | Free
August 16 (12:15 p.m.) & 17 (2 p.m.) | Macon Film Festival (Short Blocks)
August 20, 2024, 5:30 p.m. | University of Georgia Special Collections Library | Includes Talkback | Free
Sept. 5, 2024, 7 p.m. | Emory University’s Oxford College, Humanities Hall | Free
Sept. 21, 2024, 4 p.m. | Morehouse College Human Rights Film Festival
Sept. 23, 2024, 6 p.m. | Northside Branch, Fulton County Library | Free
October 23, 2024, 7 p.m. | Tara Theater (with panel of women leaders involved in environmental/social justice) | Free Registration Required
November 1, 2024, 1:30 p.m. | Rome International Film Festival (Rome, Ga.) | Conservation Documentaries
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The film (42 min.) is available for film festivals and private screenings (classrooms, nonprofits, etc.). In mid-2025 it will be available for on-demand viewing.
If your group or organization is interested in a virtual or public screening, please e-mail haljacobs@gmail.com for details.
Georgia Humanities (a co-sponsor of the film) offers small grants to nonprofits interested in hosting screenings — for details, see https://www.georgiahumanities.org/grants/
A digital site license allows colleges and universities unlimited streaming for the life of the file on a closed, password-protected system. Institutions may not charge admission or ask for donations during showings. We will deliver the program in MP4 format. Please e-mail haljacobs@gmail.com for details.