River of Grass Hot Docs review

May 03, 2025- Permalink

Sasha Wortzel’s feature debut, River of Grass, takes us to one of the planet’s most interesting and important regions, the Everglades, and views it through the lens of Marjory Stoneman Douglas and her groundbreaking 1947 book, The Everglades: River of Grass, as well as through the lives of those who call it home and fight to protect it today.

The giant Florida wetland system known as the Everglades has a vitally important role to play in the areas ecosystem. It cleans the water for millions of Floridians, it helps regulate floods and the impact of hurricanes, and it’s home to a diverse series of species. Of course, humans love to take something natural that just works and try to reshape it, redirecting waters, draining and building, and threatening the food chain and the species within it.

Wortzel’s film takes us through time, from archival interviews with Douglas and her early conservation efforts to the work of Miccosukee educator Betty Osceola, who leads prayer walks through the area while fighting to protect it. The beautifully shot film introduces us to different people who are fighting to protect the Everglades and/or feeling the effects of the decline, from battling the toxic waste and air caused by the sugar industry, the decline of the crab fishery and the rise of toxic algae blooms, or the assault on native wildlife by the Burmese python, an invasive species. From indigenous groups to the ecosystem, someone or something has always been under attack by so-called “progress.”

River of Grass has its moments of despair where you wonder if the region has past a point of no return, but Wortzel’s subjects also give us hope that the fighting spirit of those who feel deeply connected to the region might still prevail.

River of Grass had its international premiere at Toronto’s Hot Docs, where it won the Hot Docs Joan VanDuzer Special Jury Prize-International Feature Documentary award. It will have its NYC premiere at the Margaret Mead Film Festival on May 4, 2025. It has plans for other festival appearances. I strongly urge you to look out for it on the festival circuit and hopefully soon on doc channels or streamers.