It has been an audacious undertaking for a newcomer to the region, let alone someone who had never made a film before, but Jed Copper's full-length documentary 'Following the Flow' dives straight into regional Australia's most divisive topic – water – and it premiered at Dubbo's Reading Cinema last week to a full house. 

"This is my very first film. Nick Allen, our videographer, has a professional career but this is his first feature as well so there were a lot of learning experiences," Mr Coppa said. 

Following the Flow tells the story of the once-mighty Macquarie River with Coppa and Allen setting out to traverse it's length and to gather the stories of the passionate humans invested in its future. 

Mr Coppa lives in Orange and his bread-and-butter job is as a full-time surveyor, a role that has taken him around the region and often into the catchment of the Macquarie. 

"I only moved to the central west during the drought in 2019," Mr Coppa said. "Straight away I could see what was going wrong and I saw how communities were affected by the drought." 

He conceived the idea of travelling from the top of the catchment to where the Macquarie meets the Bogan and record both the condition of the river and the views of the region's First Nations people, irrigators, graziers, historians, ecologists, water managers, recreational fishers and small business owners. 

Although not everyone made the final cut, the pair spoke to about thirty people over two weeks in February 2020. 

"It was a transformative experience. We built a strong connection to the river as we made our way downstream," Mr Coppa said. 

"Hearing from people about different facets of the river made it a lot more personal, more than spending a couple of weeks fishing or camping would have." 

Jed Coppa and Norm Wilson from Twin Rivers Fishing Club on the Macquarie near Wellington

"It's hard to remember what I used to think at the beginning," said Coppa. "I learned there are so many different perspectives but a lot of commonality. I wanted to let different people do the talking and share their perspectives on the river." 

The project began in the thick of one of the worst drought's on record but before filming was complete the rains had arrived. 

"When the rain first hit we suddenly had to reorient ourselves," Mr Coppa said. "Water returned to the system and the film needed to record that and the hope that came with it." 

Three weeks after they finished shooting, everything went into lockdown but the small team with Jed Coppa as writer and producer, Nick Allan videographer, and Emily Clulow as editor spent the next two years putting the documentary together. 

The launch was held in Dubbo on Thursday 9 June and among the 115 people in the audience were many who had taken part. 

The team behind 'Following the Flow' at the Dubbo Premier on 9 June: Emily Clulow, Nick Allen and Jed Coppa.

"It was important that we came back to Dubbo to share it with the community before taking it anywhere else," Mr Coppa said. 

"There was a short Q&A afterwards. It was really exciting but with that many people as you can imagine I was pretty nervous." 

As an independent, fully self-funded production created by "a very small team with other things going on" the rollout of screenings will not be fast and lavish but Mr Coppa says they are "very excited to continue showing it to people." 

"We're planning future screenings in Sydney, Orange and potentially Dubbo," he said. "We'd love to get out and do a couple more but later in the year there will be some kind of online viewing option." 

"If people have other ideas for screenings they can reach out to us," he said. 

The Macquarie River at Gin Gin.

Find out what Jed and the team are up to at find out what we're up to and join our mailing list at www.followingtheflow.com.au.