RIVER OF GRASS is a feature film that transforms the public's understanding of the Everglades, often deemed as swamp land. The Everglades is in reality a freshwater source and an ecosystem that endures, just barely, in modern time. The film is inspired by the book written by Marjory Stoneman Douglas "The Everglades: River of Grass" (1947).
The filmmaker Sasha Wortzel wrote and directed the film. Interweaving Douglas's writing, personal narration, stunning present-day verité, and haunting 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. Seeking a way forward, Wortzel reads Douglas' book and embarks on a deep listening walk through the Everglades with Miccosukee educator Betty Osceola. The intertwined voices of the narrator, Betty, and Marjory transport the audience across the Everglades, past and present. Along the way, we meet a mother taking on the polluting sugar industry; a family of crab fishermen who have fished in the Everglades for six generations; a mother-daughter team who venture out nightly to remove invasive snakes wreaking havoc on the ecosystem; and a two-spirit Miccosukee environmentalist and poet, among others.
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.
The film World Premiere was at True/False 2025. The International Premiere was at Hot Docs where it won the Joan VanDuzer Special Jury Prize-International Feature Documentary. The NYC Premiere took place at the Margaret Mead Film Festival and received the Audience Award. Additionally, the film screened at the Sarasota Film Festival and won a Special Jury prize, Tallahassee Film Festival and received the Florida Filmmaker Award, Miami Film Festival, Woodstock Films Festival, DC/DOX, Frameline and more.
It is currently screening in Miami @ Coral Gables Art Cinema. You will also be able to see the film at upcoming screenings in Columbus, OH: Unorthodocs @ Wexner Center for the Arts – Nov. 8, West Palm Beach, FL: Subtropic FF @ Norton Museum of Art – Nov. 8 and Sanibel Island, FL: Big Arts – Nov. 17.