Freewater Productions started in the 1970s as the Freewater Film Society. The first film to be completed (in 1971), Dying, created some controversy as it contained nudity and had an experimental, non-linear format. Many Freewater Productions members have gone on to work in the film industry. Two of Freewater's first grant recipients, Ross Spears and Jude Cassidy, made the Oscar-winning feature Agee, about famed writer and critic James Agee, after graduating. Freewater began showing films at Baldwin Auditorium to make money to fund its production projects. It eventually joined the University Union and split into the separate committees of Freewater Productions and Freewater Presentations. Legend has it that the group got its name because one of its founders lived in a house where the utilities company was not charging them for water, but this version has been contested by some. A team of detectives has been working on finding the ultimate truth to this enigma for decades.