Narrator:For director Wes Skiles and producer Jill Heinerth the defining moments in making a movie are often the least expected.

Wes Skiles: For all the places that we've been, the neatest thing was going inside the storm water systems.

Narrator: During the production of "The River Returns," a documentary about the St. Johns River, that moment occurred off of the river in a storm water sewer on the edge of sprawling Orlando.

Wes Skiles: It's staggering to see how much human waste we are unknowingly putting into these systems that are then going unfiltered into our rivers.

Jill Heinerth: Pushing our way out through the shopping cart clash at the end of the conduit was pretty amazing. Intellectually, I knew that the storm sewers were draining the pavements and roadways, but when you actually travel and there's no gates, there's no filtration, there's nothing stopping anything from going straight into the river. That's kind of an eye opener when you actually make the trip.

Narrator: That part of the film would take place underground in a storm sewer is not a surprise to those familiar with Skiles' style of filmmaking. It's one that brings audiences to the edge of their seats while also imparting an educational message.

Wes Skiles: Taking a flying boat and leaping it off the river into the air. And diving down into the forceful flow of a first magnitude spring, crawling through narrow spaces and discovering one of the largest underground rooms on Earth. Going high speeds, sliding through the saw grass of the second everglades, the Blue Cypress swamp. Those things are high energy, high-octane fun. They are entertainment that people will stay glued to and the subtle things get blended in there. The experiences with alligators, the beautiful flight of the return of the eagle. Those adventures will ring true with people. They'll go "that's fun." And through that they don't even realize that they are absorbing those subtleties and getting those messages that help them live a better life along the river.

Narrator: Skiles believes that his movie will teach audiences to understand the need to take personal responsibility for the river's protection.

Wes Skiles: My dream and hope is that if you get enough people believing and embracing the fact that they are making an impact, that they can, through mass, make a change. We can cut down on how much fertilizer drains into the local creeks. We can do a lot. We can use less water. So incrementally you hope that a film inspires people to make changes in their life and do good things for the river.

Narrator: Producer Jill Heinerth wants to convey the enormity of the St. Johns River watershed so that viewers understand what a challenge it is to protect it.

Jill Heinerth: For me, making the film, traveling along the river the entire length by boat, and then diving into springs deep below the river into its the tributaries and crawling through sewer pipes and storm water drains to see where the tendrils of this river reach into society, gave me a huge appreciation for the dynamics of a watershed and just how enormously large a watershed is and just how unconnected a lot of society is with their watershed. I hope that people will learn from the film even if they are living 20 or 30 miles from the river they have a great impact on it.

Narrator: When the credits roll at the end of the film, Heinerth hopes that it will mean the beginning of renewed interest in experiencing the St. Johns River first hand.

Jill Heinerth: I think that if everybody just took a little time, a day or a weekend and go and experience the river, paddle on it, swim in it, go to a spring, just recreate on the river, then I think they would have a better connection and appreciation for what it is and why it's important to protect.