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The Way We Carry Water

Set in the rural landscapes of northern New Mexico, The Way We Carry Water follows Marcos, a young man struggling with the sudden loss of his grandfather, Iván. As he works through his grief, Marcos must take on the responsibility of preserving his family’s acequia, an ancient irrigation system that not only sustains the land, but also holds generations of cultural memory.

Filmed across the four seasons, the story mirrors the cycles of nature, grief and healing, death and rebirth, and offers a poetic reflection on legacy, resilience, and the bond between people and place. With stunning cinematography and a quiet, immersive narrative, The Way We Carry Water is a deeply personal exploration of what it means to carry forward tradition in a changing world.

  • Makaio Marcos Frazier
    Director
  • Makaio Marcos Frazier
    Writer
  • Makaio Marcos Frazier
    Producer
  • Fred Mady III
    Producer
  • Diego López
    Producer
  • Dylan Summer
    Producer
  • Drew Lopez
    Key Cast
    "Marcos"
  • Marcos Martinez
    Key Cast
    "Iván"
  • Aaryan Attreya
    Key Cast
    "Young Marcos "
  • Diego Joaquín Lopez
    Key Cast
    "Jesse"
  • Project Type:
    Short
  • Runtime:
    25 minutes 27 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    July 16, 2025
  • Production Budget:
    48,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    2.40:1
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Digital Cinema Package:
    Unavailable
Director Biography - Makaio Marcos Frazier

Makaio Frazier is a filmmaker, writer, and producer based in northern New Mexico. A graduate of the University of New Mexico's film program, he has worked on productions including Oppenheimer, American Primeval, and Frybread Face and Me. In 2022 he founded Chile Line Media, a production studio dedicated to place-based storytelling rooted in the landscapes, communities, and traditions of the Southwest.
His latest short, The Way We Carry Water (2025), won the Audience Choice Award and Best Local Short at Las Cruces International Film Festival. The film celebrates the living heritage of acequia culture while tracing a young man's journey through grief and renewal. Makaio's work reflects a deep commitment to craft, authenticity, and amplifying regional voices in cinema.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

The Way We Carry Water grew out of my own experience growing up in northern New Mexico, where acequias - centuries-old community irrigation systems - are more than infrastructure. They’re lifelines, binding people to the land and to one another. After my grandfather passed away, I inherited a sense of stewardship for both our family’s acequia and the stories carried in its water.

I wanted to create a film that captures that quiet inheritance with the blend of grief, duty, and belonging that comes when someone leaves you their work as well as their love. By filming across four seasons, I hoped to let the landscape mirror Marcos’s emotional journey: the warmth of summer memories, the starkness of loss in fall and winter, and the fragile hope of spring.

My aim wasn’t to make a documentary about acequia culture, but to honor it through fiction and show how tradition is lived in small gestures: a shovel turning soil, water released into a field, a boy learning from an elder. The story is simple, almost wordless at times, because so much of this knowledge and feeling is passed quietly, without explanation.

Above all, I wanted the film to feel like it belongs to this place. Its light, its seasons, its rhythms. The Way We Carry Water is my attempt to pay respect to the people and landscapes that shaped me, and to share a piece of that inheritance with others.