River Of Grass

A film by Sasha Wortzel

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.

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, present-day vérité, and archival glimpses, 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.

Director, Writer: Sasha Wortzel
Producer: Danielle Varga, Sasha Wortzel
Principal Cast: Betty Osceola, Marjory Stoneman Douglas

About the Filmmaker

Sasha Wortzel uses video, installation, sculpture, sound, and performance to explore how this country’s past and present are inextricably linked through resonant spaces and their hauntings. Wortzel’s films have screened at MoMA DocFortnight, CPH:DOX, True/False Film Festival, DOC NYC, BAMcinemaFest, San Francisco International, Blackstar, New Orleans Film Festival, Wexner Center for the Arts, and Smithsonian American Art Museum. Wortzel has been supported by a 2023 Guggenheim Fellowship, MacDowell, the Sundance Institute, Ford Foundation, Field of Vision, Doc Society, and Chicken & Egg Pictures. Recent films include How To Carry Water (2023) nominated for IDA awards best short documentary; This Is An Address (2020) distributed by Field of Vision; and Happy Birthday, Marsha! (2018; co-director Tourmaline) which won special mention at Outfest and is distributed by Frameline.