Campus News
February 24th, 2026
Harris emerges as storyteller, filmmaker
Award-winner to screen a Blackwater Story at GC's PAC March 7th
Award-winning West Virginia filmmaker Justin Harris was last Wednesday's speaker in this month's Joan Crawford Lecture Series at the Performing Arts Center at Garrett College.
Award-winning West Virginia filmmaker Justin Harris has learned you can't produce a great film without a great story.
"You know you've told a great story when that story makes people feel they have a call to action," said Harris, who was last Wednesday's speaker in this month's Joan Crawford Lecture Series at the Performing Arts Center at Garrett College.
Harris – whose early films have mainly focused on West Virginia's whitewater kayaking and skiing communities – screened two Nike commercials as examples of great storytelling. The first – which finished with the message It's only crazy until you do it – focused on athletes overcoming significant physical challenges to accomplish incredible athletic feats.
"How much of that commercial is about Nike products? Almost none of it," observed Harris. "It's about human beings and their stories."
The second commercial featured Jason Williams and Randy Moss, who were classmates at DuPont (WV) High School before going on to impactful careers in the NBA and NFL, respectively. The commercial showed each making spectacular plays at the high school, college, and pro levels despite starting in rural West Virginia.
"I want to do that – tell stories that inspire people," said Harris.
Harris has accomplished that goal with his first three films:
- Red Creek Sessions, which took an in-depth look at the region's rock structures through the descent of Red Creek by local whitewater kayakers on Cheatfest Weekend 2022.
- Freeland – A White Grass Story, which focused on West Virginia Nordic skiing at the iconic White Grass Ski Area, as well as the mountain's relationship to the Blackwater River kayaking community.
- A Blackwater Story, which highlighted the Blackwater River in the Monongahela National Forest and the kayaking community that gave birth to the sport of "steep creeking."
Harris didn't launch his filmmaking career until his first marriage ended in divorce and "she took everything, including the house."
"I'd lost everything," recalled Harris. "A lot of people spend their entire lives fearing they might lose everything one day. It's kind of funny – when you actually do lose everything, that fear goes away."
Harris moved to an island in the middle of the James River that overlooked the city of Richmond.
"I lived on that island the entire spring, summer, and fall of 2013 as a way to reset my mind and decide what I wanted to do," said Harris, who determined what he really wanted to do was become a photographer.
"I used all the money I had left to buy a camera and became a photographer," recalled Harris. "I remember my dad saying, ‘Don't you think you should take some of that money and spend it on food?' "
He eventually came west, meeting "this wonderful Garrett County woman" – his second wife, Marcie Harris, "who told me, ‘Go do what makes you happy.' " So, Harris became a rafting guide, graduated to photo boater, transitioned to be Canaan Valley Resort's photographer, and then launched Mountain River Media (MRM) in 2018.
"My bosses were like, ‘You can make more money if you're a contractor,' " said Harris of the story behind MRM. Harris concentrated on developing a kayak-centric YouTube channel that focused on "telling stories on the river – not running the rapids, but all the stuff they were doing between the runs."
"That definitely put us on the map," said Harris of the YouTube channel.
Harris had so mastered his storytelling skills by the time his first film - Red Creek Sessions – was completed that it was named the winner of the Accomplished Film Award and the Viewers Choice Award at the 2023 National Paddling Film Festival. All told, that film has garnered more than 35 awards.
A White Grass Story was told through a focus on Chip Chase, who was characterized by Highland Outdoors writer Dylan Jones in a 2021 feature as "the Supreme Commander of the White Grass Ski Touring Center."
"You can imagine what it's like following him around with a camera for two years," said Harris. "During that time I started to realize the importance of storytelling."
A White Grass Story developed when Harris "took a mini-documentary and turned it into a film about my favorite place on earth: White Grass on a sunny day with two feet of snow."
"We told a story that humanized White Grass and connected it to viewers," Harris said of White Grass, which he took it to all of the major outdoors film festivals. "They felt like this was a special place and they wanted to be part of that special place."
"White Grass toured the world," added Harris, who took it to all of the major outdoors film festivals.
That cinematic success led to commercial opportunities, Harris noted.
"I started getting emails from companies, saying, ‘We want you to make a film about our company and do the same thing you did for White Grass.' "
"White Grass is such a special place," Harris noted. "At that point, I had to ask myself, ‘Can I tell any story out there?' "
Beyond the people, Harris said the ephemeral nature of White Grass is what attracts people to his story.
"White Grass exists on a private farm that has been re-farmed as the national wildlife refuge in Canaan Valley State Park," Harris explained. "It's borrowed land – it only exists when it's operating – when it's not operating, it doesn't exist; that's what makes the ephemerality of it so beautiful.
Harris said White Grass led naturally to A Blackwater Story.
"When the snow melts off of the mountain, White Grass melts into Freeland run, which is why we call it Freeland," Harris explained. "If you ski White Grass and two days later run the upper Blackwater, you're probably on the same liquid you were on two days before."
Harris said A Blackwater Story allowed him to mix with "the highest concentration of living legends in kayaking anywhere in the world," including super-legend Jeff Snyder.
"It took me five years to convince Jeff Snyder to actually take part in an interview," Harris remarked.
Harris has toured A Blackwater Story throughout the outdoors film festival circuit for the last year. That tour ends March 7th, with a screening of A Blackwater Story in the Performing Arts Center at Garrett College.
Harris now finds himself in the "lucky position of getting to pick and choose the businesses I work with," including the new Canaan Valley Spa at the Timberline entrance.
"Now we're telling their story about the land the spa was built on and their connection of the wellness center to the local community," said Harris. "The spa is allowing their tourism dollars to be put back into the business so that they can help with the health and wellness of the local community at a discounted rate."
Harris is also working with the Over the Mountain Studio Tour –19 different artists in West Virginia's Jefferson County.
"They want to tell their story," said Harris, who appears to be equipped to tell anyone's story.
