DelRose is an executive producer on “The Big Dump” and lives in Coronado.
In early 2023, I, along with Brett Davis and Sara Morga, decided it was time to make a documentary to help people see for themselves the dangers of Tijuana's sewage crisis.
First, we did some careful planning in advance and decided on an outline of what we wanted the film to cover. According to our research, the news kept changing every week, so we kept delaying it. I had to choose the right time to start. We needed to find a way to keep people from getting mad at us for exposing this negative information. The last thing we wanted was to leave a stain on our beautiful city. We didn't want to hurt tourism and we didn't want to be blamed for falling house prices. We knew we didn't want it to be political. This is a bipartisan issue. Since this project involved four of her writer/producers, these sensitive issues had to be addressed. Once I decided to start filming, I had to choose the right people to interview. The interviewees definitely felt it was the right mix. There were 23 people in total.
Next, we wanted it to be more of a movie than just a bland “60 Minute” interview. The ocean, surfing, and Southern California landscapes are beautifully photographed. Local videographer Allen Carrasco is a master of getting the right shot as a cinematographer. His son Landon Carrasco assisted in his drone photography. Davis was chosen to be the narrator and Morga was chosen to be the lead producer. They were all perfect, passionate, and talented. We all got along very well and filming went as smooth as silk (which is very rare in most film productions). After 7 days of shooting, we started editing.
Allen Carrasco, who is also a master editor, took the lead. But all four of us at his side spent hours and hours going over the editing decisions, trying to make the final edit as perfect as possible. Once completed, we waited about 60 days to find out if our film would premiere at the Coronado Island Film Festival. And we rely on influential companies, philanthropists like Malin Burnham, and others to help lobby politicians in Washington and California to make the budget decisions needed to improve our wastewater situation. He has held a number of private shows with politicians, including U.S. Rep. Scott Peters, D-San Diego. At the border.
The movie finally premiered on November 10th. We won the Audience Choice Award for Best Documentary and set an attendance record by filling the 567-seat Coronado High School auditorium. It also won an award in the Best Short Story competition held in La Jolla.
That's just the beginning of a lot of things to happen that we didn't expect from our little documentary, “The Big Dump.” The movie began to take on a life of its own. Around February, articles about Tijuana's sewage suddenly began appearing frequently in both the news and opinion sections of all local newspapers, including the San Diego Union-Tribune, and the issue was featured heavily on local television news programs. began to attract attention. This still happens every week. I would like to think that our film will help bring this issue the attention it needs and that our politicians will be paying attention to this issue in Washington, DC.
This movie was meant to be informational, not to convey anger. In fact, all San Diego residents began to band together as activists for change. The realization that people in Imperial Beach have to close their windows every night, meaning their beach has been closed for 800 consecutive days, Coronado Beach is closed frequently, and pollution is now in the air. Awareness goes beyond worrying. Our Navy SEALs are getting sick, our greatest natural resource, the Pacific Ocean, is suffering, and pollution is now spreading along the coast toward Point Loma and Solana Beach. We hope that people will continue to come together to solve this crisis.
We were just nominated for the San Diego Film Award for Best Short Documentary, and Davis, the film's producer and narrator, was recently nominated for the Humanitarian Award. It's all thanks to this little movie, “The Big Dump.” So for us, it was worth the time to make this piece.
We want to protect the Pacific Ocean, bring surfers and swimmers back to the ocean, support tourism, and help everyone's health. Together we can help the environment and the world. If you haven't seen this movie yet, go to YouTube and search for “The Big Dump.” It's a 37 minute documentary and it's free.
