River of Grass

River of Grass is a present-day reimagining of environmentalist Marjory Stoneman Douglas’s celebrated 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. Filmmaker Sasha Wortzel, a native Floridian, transports viewers to the region’s watershed past and precarious present through archival footage and writings and by those who today call the region home. Among the exquisite film’s many highlights are tours of the Everglades with Miccosukee educator Betty Osceola, who has recently made headlines for leading protests against the federal immigrant detention facilities that were built atop the Everglades. River of Grass reveals how this country’s origin story haunts and inextricably shapes contemporary life, while asking how we might weather the coming storms better together. (83 mins., DCP)

River of Grass premiered at the 2025 True/False Film Festival and received a Special Jury Prize at the Hot Docs festival in Toronto.

See the complete Unorthodocs 2025 lineup.

IMAGE CAPTION
River of Grass, courtesy of the filmmaker.