First-time filmmaker studies the Still River

Danbury’s Still River is hitting the red carpet. Dave Bonan, who recently worked as the

Development and garbage right up to the water’s edge of the Still River Director of Music and New Media in the Connecticut Film Festival, is knee-deep in Still Flowing: The Movie, a short documentary on the history of the Still River. The river’s story is a remarkable one of revitalization and steadfastness, capping most recently with the opening of the Still River Greenway in Commerce Park this past June. According to the Still River Alliance, the river endured great abuse starting in the late 1700s (citizens named the river “Still” because it was void of life); only in the last few decades has there been significant progress in cleaning up the river. Over the course of two centuries, the Still River transformed from a healthy waterway to a 22 mile-long sewer. In the 1800s, hatting materials and other industrial chemicals were tossed into the river, along with household sewage. As Danbury became more urban, fertilizers, pesticides, oils and other pollutants entered the river through runoff, rendering the river virtually uninhabitable.

It was at this point when the river “took its revenge.” Extensive flooding took place in the 1930s and 50s due to development of the shoreline, and the river had become a stinking, lifeless mass weaving through the city. In 1991, the Connecticut DEP surveyed the fish of the Still River and found nothing save for a handful of suckerfish. Much progress has been made to restore the Still River in the last few decades.

Adjustments to the chemicals in the city’s waste treatment system brought back the Still’s fish populations (another DEP survey in 1997 showed a wide variety of finfish living in the river, indicating a high water quality).

Efforts have been made to clean the water of pollutants and to restore the river’s shorelines and floodplains. But restoration is far from over; the river requires much more care, cleaning and protection after facing over 200 years of negligence. Anyone who’s walked over the river on West Street knows the smell emanating from its waters is not a healthy one.

It’s possible that Bonan’s documentary will bring the Still River into the forefront of Danbury’s consciousness; it could even draw more attention to the dormant Greenway expansion plans through Brookfield and New Milford. “My goal is for people to own a piece of history,” he said in an interview.

Bonan came up with the idea for the film while bike riding around Danbury. He realized that the Still River channel was one of the only places in the city that he had not traversed on bike. “I thought it would be a cool idea to bike the 3/4-mile channel that runs from Crosby Street to Triangle Street while filming,” said Bonan. That scene snapshot snowballed into a making a short documentary on the river. Bonan describes himself as a “sponge with history” and has been cleaning out area archives as he paddles the Still research river. The most notable event he has come across in his research? Local farmers protesting the pollution of the river in the 1930s and 40s by hauling loads of manure to City Hall’s front steps.

Bonan is excited for the local and universal flavor of Still Flowing. His crew features Danburian Aurelio Muraca as the film’s director as well as Renato Ghio, who runs RmediA, a Danbury based production company, as the director of photography. Bonan is receiving widespread support from the Danbury Museum and Historical Society, WestConn and the surrounding community; he has been conducting video testimonials from living hatters over the past few weeks and is planning

a walk-up video testimonial booth at the Taste of Danbury on September 11 and 12.

“Regardless of politics, everyone is on board,” he said.

Bonan explained that the Still River originates from Sanford’s Pond, an underground aquifer near Exit 2 off of Interstate 84(which Danbury recently acquired as open space, along with a parcel of 193 acres).

From there, the river trickles down I-84, hits Lake Kenosia and comes through Danbury’s downtown. At Eagle Road, the location of the Still River Greenway, Limekiln Brook meets up with the river, then heads north 13 miles to Lover’s Leap State Park. From there, the Still River pours into the Housatonic, which heads out to Long Island Sound.

The fact that the river flows north, away from its source, is unique. The most famous river to flow this way is the Nile, and though Bonan says this phenomenon is not uncommon, it’s “still cool.” Bonan promises that Still Flowing will not be your traditional cut and dry documentary.

“The film will incorporate my love of biking and the history,” he said. “It will infuse my personality. We’ll use the bike as a quirk.” Bonan says the film is far from completion, but you can keep tabs on the project at Still Flowing’s Facebook page: Facebook. com/StillFlowingTheMovie . Walk, canoe or kayak the Still River Greenway at Commerce Park, off of Eagle Road in Danbury.