Sasha Wortzel | USA | 83 min
Co-presented by The Arboretum, University of Guelph
Co-presented by ArtsEverywhere Festival
EVENT: Wetlands & Watersheds
Pre-Screening: A watershed/wetlands tour of the Arboretum (4pm) led by Jo Langlois. Followed by a break for dinner (5pm) before the screening (7:30). Please make sure you dress for the weather & walking! And claim tickets for BOTH the tour AND the film.
Feature Film Screening: An ode to the Florida Everglades, this immersive essay explores the historical and ongoing challenges of this endemic ecosystem through the writings of environmentalist Marjory Stoneman Douglas, testimonies of Miccosukee educator Betty Osceola, and other current occupants of the land. Sasha Wortzel weaves a captivating and interconnected portrait of this unique watershed, known for its rich biodiversity, which is the place of her upbringing, asking how we might reckon with the past and weather the coming storms together.
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.
DIRECTOR BIO:
Sasha Wortzel
Sasha Wortzel is an award-winning filmmaker and interdisciplinary artist. Raised in Southwest Florida and based in New York City, Wortzel specifically attends to sites and stories systematically erased or ignored from these regions’ histories. Wortzel is a recipient of a 2023 Guggenheim Fellowship, 2023 MacDowell Fellowship, 2020 Oolite Arts Ellies Award, and 2017 NYFA Fellowship. Her films have screened at MoMA
DocFortnight, CPH:DOX, True/False, DOC NYC, BAMcinemaFest, San Francisco International, Hot Docs, Wexner Center for the Arts, and Smithsonian American Art Museum. River of Grass is her first feature documentary. The film has received institutional support from Sundance, Ford Foundation, Field of Vision, Doc Society, Chicken & Egg Pictures, and Sandbox Films.
