Dave Matthews ＂don't drink the water＂ video shoot Dean Karr - Dave Matthews ＂don't drink the water＂ video shoot Dean Karr

What this video is

Released as the lead single from Before These Crowded Streets (RCA, April 28, 1998), 'Don't Drink the Water' represents one of the most politically ambitious music videos of the late MTV alternative era. Written from the perspective of a colonizer justifying violent displacement of indigenous peoples, the song and its video engage directly with the history of European conquest of Native Americans — a rare thematic…

Why it matters

Landmark late-90s alternative rock video that merges ethnographic location filmmaking with surrealist VFX and political critique. Represents the apex of the 'prestige MTV video' format — where major-label budgets, auteur directors, and socially engaged songwriting converged. Dean Karr's direction…

The director

Dean Karr (born February 22, 1965, Seattle, Washington) is an American director and photographer. He earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Washington State University and attended the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. His breakthrough came directing…