Sasha Wortzel’s ‘River of Grass’ Docu on Florida’s Everglades Sets Release Date | Clip

River of Grass is artist and filmmaker Sasha Wortzel’s debut documentary on the Florida’s Everglades.

It world premiered earlier this year at True/False film festival, then went on to screen at major festivals including Hot Docs, where it was awarded the prestigious Joan VanDuzer Special Jury Prize for International Feature Documentary, its NYC premiere at Margaret Mead Film Festival, where it won the Mead Audience Award, and garnered a Special Jury Mention at the Sarasota Film Festival. The documentary also screened at DC/DOX, Miami Film Festival, Frameline, Kosovo’s Dokufest, and other festivals. It will next screen at the Woodstock Film Festival on October 15.

Fourth Act Film will release the documentary in U.S. theatres, beginning October 17 with a week-long engagement at Miami’s Coral Gables Art Cinema, followed by a week-long run at New York’s DCTV Firehouse Cinema starting October 24, with additional cities to be announced. The Academy Awards-qualifying theatrical release will feature filmmaker Q&As, discussion panels, and other events in each city. Grasshopper Film will handle the North American digital and ancillary rights to the film.

River of Grass is a present-day reimagining of Marjory Stoneman Douglas’ groundbreaking 1947 book, The Everglades: River of Grass, which forever changed the public’s perception of Florida’s wetlands from “worthless swamp” to an essential ecological treasure. In the wake of a hurricane, Douglas visits Wortzel in a dream, catalyzing a prismatic journey across the Everglades with Miccosukee educator and activist Betty Osceola. Interweaving Douglas’ writing, personal narration, stunning present-day verité, and rare archival footage, the film reveals how this country’s origin story haunts and inextricably shapes contemporary American life, while asking how we might weather coming storms better together.

The film features rare archival footage of Marjory Stoneman Douglas, and its subjects include the Indigenous activist Betty Osceola, as well as Houston R. Cypress, Leon Howell, Kina Phillips, Steve Messam, Donna and Deanna Kalil, Heather Barron, Malka Spektor, Timothy Navin, and the Stokes family of crab fishermen.

Filmmaker Sasha Wortzel said, “I’m thrilled to be working with Fourth Act Film and Grasshopper Film to bring River of Grass to U.S. audiences, particularly at a time where our environment is increasingly under attack, and the Florida Everglades have been thrust into the spotlight as our lead protagonist Betty Osceola and a broad coalition organize to shut down a massive detention center known as “Alligator Alcatraz.” Told through those who today call the region home, the film highlights the Everglades as a site of resistance in the face of the climate emergency, and is an invitation to connect more deeply with our environment, each other, and our collective power.”

River of Grass was directed and written by Sasha Wortzel (shorts How to Carry Water, This is an Address, and Happy Birthday, Marsha!), and produced by Wortzel and Danielle Varga (producer of Seeds, A Photographic Memory, Light of the Setting Sun, co-producer of The Stroll, The Hottest August, Cameraperson). Director of photography is J. Bennett (You Were My First Boyfriend, It’s Only Life After All, How to Carry Water), and the film was edited by Rebecca Adorno Dávila (Homeroom, The Vow) and Wortzel, with consulting editors Todd Chandler (In the Absence, I Didn’t See You There, Sugarcane, Milisuthando) and Maya Daisy Hawke (Navalny, Sugarcane, Cave of Forgotten Dreams). Original music is by the acclaimed musician and composer Angélica Negrón.

Watch a clip from River of Grass above.