Starting in 1978, Robb Moss chronicled his friends' outdoor, rent-free life during one clothing-optional rafting trip through the Grand Canyon. In 2003, he filmed his friends again, reckoning with their move from being young and naked to clothed and middle-aged. Now, in 2026, Moss finds his friends in their 70s, grappling with the choices they’ve made as individuals and as a generation. By weaving together footage from all three time periods - youth, middle age, and growing old - The Bend in the River creates a cinematic world in which moments from the distant past mingle with those of the recent present, gently ricocheting viewers back and forth through time, asking the most fundamental of questions: how does who we’ve been influence who we are, and more, who we might become?
