03/01/2025
By Todd Jorgenson | November 1, 2024|11:19 am
ttps://www.dmagazine.com/arts-entertainment/2024/11/diff-winning-documentary-plunges-into-a-west-texas-water-conflict/
Film DIFF-Winning Documentary Plunges Into a West Texas Water Conflic Drawing from personal experience, Fort Worth’s Philip Guitar said producing Water Wars, was both cathartic and illuminating.
By Todd Jorgenson | November 1, 2024|11:19 am

Philip Guitar was brainstorming far and wide for a documentary project for his upstart Fort Worth production company. Then his family reminded him that his best idea was much closer to home.
That led Guitar to Water Wars, a documentary about a battle over precious water rights that he calls a “West Texas Chinatown.” The film recently won the Grand Jury Prize for Best Texas Feature at the Dallas International Film Festival.
It chronicles the political wrangling over irrigation rights to water located beneath ranches in Dell City, about 90 miles east of El Paso, involving landowners, municipal governments, big-money investors, and precious natural resources.
“I had access to this story,” Guitar said. “We had a lot of the data and the connections, and it blossomed from there.”
The contentious battle, which began in the 1990s when the city of El Paso attempted to make a deal with Dell Valley ranchers to pump groundwater, led to the landmark 2007 Texas Supreme Court case Guitar Holdings v. Hudspeth. However, since his family had owned hundreds of acres in the area for multiple generations and emotions still ran high, Guitar needed a neutral voice.
“We were just one group of people who were going through this or leading the charge,” Guitar said. “You’ve got people who you would normally think would get along under most circumstances, but they went to war over this issue.”
So he reached out to Austin filmmaker Mario Mattei (The Gentleman Driver), who stressed the need for even-handed storytelling, and making it more than just a David vs. Goliath tale of fighting government and corporate greed.
“Philip was so down-to-earth and friendly and excited. I got good vibes. Plus, this sounded like a good story. It felt like a really big challenge,” Mattei said. “But I didn’t want to make a family legacy doc. I wanted to dig and find as much opposition as I can.”
The driving force behind the film became the late Laura Lynch, a founding member of the country-music band the Chicks who lived in Dell City and became a prominent voice in the dispute before she died in a car crash in late 2023, when the film was in post-production.
“I would not have this movie without Laura,” Mattei said. “She was really the heart and gave me a whole map. The characters and the town and the dynamics of the relationships — there was so much there.”
The Dell City issue has resolved itself in recent years with regard to compensation, and the tension has eased. Yet Guitar still found the project cathartic.
“We wanted to tell this story from all sides and let viewers decide what you think is right. We wanted it to be told openly and honestly,” Guitar said, “I knew what our position was and knew how we had been mistreated, but I also knew there was another side. It opened my eyes.”
Water Wars will screen this weekend as part of the Lone Star Film Festival in Fort Worth, with Guitar on hand for a Q&A. After that, negotiations are ongoing with potential distributors for a general release.Mattei said reaction at screenings thus far shows the film’s broader issues resonate beyond its corner of West Texas.“We have a court system and a justice system, and we’re living in an era where we feel disillusioned with a lot of our institutions, for good reason. But this was one instance where the courts got it right,” Mattei said. “It’s kind of a cautionary tale, where if you’re a property owner and you have something of value, pay attention.”
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See More:
ttps://www.dallasobserver.com/arts/texas-documentary-water-wars-exposes-a-towns-legal-fight-for-water-19775553
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