RIVER OF GRASS
A film by Sasha Wortzel
2025, 83 minutes
2025, 83 minutes
No. 487
Documentary
Documentary
Winner, Pare Lorentz Award, IDA Documentary Awards 2025
Description
River of Grass is a present-day reimagining of Marjory Stoneman Douglas’s groundbreaking book, “The Everglades: River of Grass,” (1947), which transformed the public’s understanding of the area from worthless swamps to an essential source of freshwater, enabling the ecosystem to endure, just barely, today.
In the wake of a hurricane, Douglas visits filmmaker Sasha Wortzel in a dream and catalyzes a prismatic study of a wilderness that is home to a rich history and a site of resistance in the face of climate collapse. Wortzel reads Douglas's book and joins prayer walks through the Everglades with Miccosukee educator Betty Osceola, transporting the audience through the watershed past and present. We meet a mother taking on the polluting sugar industry; a two-spirit Miccosukee environmentalist and poet; a mother-daughter team removing snakes wreaking havoc on the ecosystem; and a family who have fished in the Everglades for six generations.
Interweaving Douglas's writing, personal narration, stunning present-day verité, and rare archival footage, River of Grass reveals how this country’s origin story haunts and inextricably shapes contemporary American life, while asking how we might weather coming storms better together.
In the wake of a hurricane, Douglas visits filmmaker Sasha Wortzel in a dream and catalyzes a prismatic study of a wilderness that is home to a rich history and a site of resistance in the face of climate collapse. Wortzel reads Douglas's book and joins prayer walks through the Everglades with Miccosukee educator Betty Osceola, transporting the audience through the watershed past and present. We meet a mother taking on the polluting sugar industry; a two-spirit Miccosukee environmentalist and poet; a mother-daughter team removing snakes wreaking havoc on the ecosystem; and a family who have fished in the Everglades for six generations.
Interweaving Douglas's writing, personal narration, stunning present-day verité, and rare archival footage, River of Grass reveals how this country’s origin story haunts and inextricably shapes contemporary American life, while asking how we might weather coming storms better together.
Festivals
Winner, Joan VanDuzer Special Jury Prize, International Feature Documentary Award, Hot Docs Festival 2025
Winner, 2025 Mead Audience Award, Margaret Mead Film Festival 2025
Winner, Special Jury Mention, Sarasota Film Festival
Official Selection, True/False Film Fest 2025 Official Selection, Miami Film Festival
Official Selection, DC/DOX
Official Selection, Dokufest
Official Selection, Tallahassee Film Festival
Official Selcetion, Woodstock Film Festival
Reviews
"Wortzel's film is a clarion call to protect Florida's greatest resource." — RogerEbert.com
"A variety of perspectives add up to something as exquisitely crystalline, allowing you to get lost in its beauty without losing sight of how easily broken it can be." — The Moveable Feast
"A rare environmental film to succeed both in expressing collective grief about climate change and inspiring activism to adapt and resist further depradations." — Filmmaker Magazine
