The movie River, rivers of stories

In 2022, when I first played the Australian film River I found myself caught up in an experience that moved me more than I expected. It wasn't just a documentary, it was an ode to rivers, told through images, music and narration. The emotions created, hard to describe in words, answered a question that had been haunting me for a long time: What do I want to do in the coming years?

Well, yes, I want to go fishing on as many rivers as possible, to get to know them, to listen to them, to feel them, to understand them, to tell stories about them, from their sources to their mouths, whether they are lost in a river, a sea, or directly in the ocean.

How my story continued with the movie River

In fact, the film River held a mirror up to my face. Rivers have always attracted me, but now this connection had become a clear path. This was followed by rivers in Romania, Sweden, Slovakia, Greece and two issues of the magazine Arhitectura that I have been coordinating for the last few years, Danube 1075 and Δ Danube, magazines that I recommend you read, are available in full and online.

The movie River and the beginning of the “R” seriesStorytelling"  

Coming back to River, this is not just a film, it is a starting point, a poem about water and the way rivers flow through our lives. It made me understand why rivers attract me and why I feel the need to follow them step by step. Their story is hidden there, and maybe part of my story too. I will continue to discover them and share them with you, because every river has a story waiting to be read. On this normal course, soon, I will write on BLOGS, in a series called "Rivers of Tales", about Hron (Slovakia) and Acheloos (Greece).

I took the liberty (I don't know how legal it is, but I hope it's forgiven) to bring you part of the narrative of the film River below. And yes, the film is a different experience, in tune with the gorgeous shots and specially composed music, but reading has the gift of creating your own inner film.

River movie (2021), narration

Through the glaciers, streams of meltwater flow. Freed by the sun from its sluggish existence as ice, the flowing water begins to sing its way to the sea. To be truly alive, a river must be wild, savage, powerful, and unhindered.

Longing for the ocean, its only purpose is to descend. For millions of years, humans have wandered the earth. It was rivers that created fertile valleys, allowed us to settle and live. The first cities arose on the banks of great waterways. Our early destiny was shaped by the will of rivers. We feared and revered them as forces of life and death. We worshipped them as gods. Rivers inspired us as a species, allowing us to thrive. Over time, they became the highways through which trade and technology spread inland.

Along them also flowed poetry, stories and religions, politics and conflicts. Rivers have grown our cities, but they have also been indifferent to people's plans and dreams. Capricious and unpredictable, during floods they could wreak havoc, and during droughts they could disappear completely. So we invented extraordinary means to control them, to harness their force. And to tame their wildness. We discovered how to regulate and manage them, how to manage them like machines.

We have gone from seeing rivers as living beings to seeing them as resources. Our gods have become our subjects. Our ability to control rivers has changed the course of history. Droughts and floods have been averted. Arid lands have become fertile. Rivers have contributed to war and peace. They have shaped empires, divided nations, and nourished humanity. In many places, the river is still revered, still vital to life. And to death.

The veneration of water is a given for millions. The power of the river remains a sacred power. It heals, comforts and cleanses. It washes away sin and purifies the dead. It is a source of hope, love and desire. It is the path of life. For those who live and die by the river, their river is the river. Essential for emotional and spiritual sustenance. Essential for survival.

Rivers still exert an immense influence on us. The global network of transportation and connectivity is barely remembered in everyday life. Today, the world's largest cities all have a river at their center. Rivers have enabled prosperity unimaginable for some. Yet, for all their power, rivers are fragile, easily damaged, and not so easily repaired. Vast tracts of water have been drained and redirected to meet our growing needs.

We have made deserts flourish, fostering the illusion of infinite abundance. We have stopped going to the river. Now, we bring the river to us. But there is always a downstream cost. Someone, somewhere, must have less. The amount of water in the hydrosphere has not changed since the first rains fell. But the number of people on Earth has increased exponentially. And each of us is extremely dependent on water. The scale of the human project has begun to overwhelm the world's rivers.

Today, there is hardly a river that is not crossed without dams or levees. The largest dams have held back so much water that they have slowed the earth's rotation. Dams make miracles possible. They produce clean energy from little more than water and gravity. They quench the thirst of millions. They hold back floods, but at such a cost. Blocked and static, a dammed river stagnates. Its sediments settle to the bottom of the reservoir. Dams achieve what should be impossible. They drown rivers. Once released, cleared of sediment, the dam water does more damage than life. Floodplains and deltas are no longer fed by silt.

The cycle of regeneration we depend on is broken. Electricity grids, not the seasons, determine river flow. And the energy generated by dams often doesn’t reach those who need it. In the name of progress, we’ve been spraying our rivers with poison. Every year, toxic algae blooms plague more and more rivers and lakes, making their water unnavigable, undrinkable, and even deadly. Instead of vital sediment and nutrients, rivers carry millions of tons of plastic waste to the sea each year.

As always, the poorest suffer the most. One country's wealth is another's suffering. Many rivers are now struggling to survive. They gasp for water, pool behind dams, are channeled through cities, drained of life. The mystery and beauty of a wild river are beyond our capacity to understand, but within our capacity to destroy. Rivers that have flowed for centuries have been cut off in decades.

Time and again, upstream need and upstream greed have led to downstream disasters. We have become titans, able to shape our world in ways that will endure for millions of years to come. But time also moves on, and we find ourselves upstream facing a precarious future. The life of our rivers now will determine the destinies of future generations. We will be remembered for all that we have done. We must ask ourselves: are we good ancestors? Rivers live in time, passing through millennia.

They offer us much more than water. They move our imagination, they renew our spirit. With quiet determination, they overcome the hardest and most powerful things. In the future. Eventually, the river disappears into the sea. However, its spirit is not lost forever. Its death in the ocean begins its reincarnation. Water cannot be created or destroyed. It only changes state in an endless cycle of renewal, driven by the great engine of the sun. For the atmosphere is also full of moving water. The sky has rivers. Vast Amazons and clouds of vapor flow from the sea back to the source.

Together, these rivers of the sky contain more water than all the streams and rivers on Earth combined. Many cultures have never forgotten what it means to think like a river. Or how to listen to rivers. They know that the fate of rivers and the fate of people are inextricable. It is easy to forget that there are places and forces that do not respond to the flip of a switch or the turn of a dial. That have their own rhythms and orders of existence.

Wild rivers correct this amnesia. Rivers are vulnerable to our harm. But they also possess miraculous powers of recovery. Given a chance, their life flows back. After years of imprisonment behind concrete, their sediments are released to continue downstream and feed the land again. To think like a river is to dream downstream in time.

Let us imagine what will flow far into the future from our actions in the present. Let us be good ancestors to those who will come after us, downstream from us. Take care of the river and the river will take care of you. We share our fate with the rivers.

We flow together.

The director and crew behind the film River

River is an Australian documentary released in 2021, directed by Jennifer Peedom (known for Sherpa, 2015 and Mountain, 2017) together with Joseph Nizeti. The film is narrated by the actor Willem Dafoe, based on a poetic text written by the British essayist Robert Macfarlane (Underland, Mountains of the Mind). Music belongs to Richard Tognetti and Australian Chamber Orchestra, with the participation of William Barton (didgeridoo, voice). In some special screenings, the film was presented live, with the orchestra playing in the hall, which amplified the immersive experience.

The production was carried out by the houses Stranger Than Fiction Films and Dogwoof, powered by Screen Australia. The documentary River is part of a triptych that began with Mountain (2017), the same directing, musical, and narrative team.

Hypnotic direction and editing

The cinematography of this film involves established names: Yann Arthus-Bertrand, Renan Ozturk, Peter McBride, Ben Knight etc. The result is a visual symphony composed of aerial panoramas, slow-motion shots of water, juxtaposed with images of pollution, dams, plastic and droughts. The montage signed by Simon Njoo ties everything together into a hypnotic experience.

Modern visual locations and techniques

Filming took place in 39 international locations: from the glaciers of Alaska, Iceland and the Himalayas, to the rivers of Asia, America and Africa. The pandemic required a collaborative approach, footage filmed by local teams, satellite images provided by NASA, drone footage and highly documented archives.

Awards and recognition of the value of the film River

In total, River has collected 7 awards and 8 nominations at the international level, according to IMDb.

At AACTA Awards 2022 won two of the most important trophies, Best Feature Length Documentary and Best Original Music Score in a Documentary, along with nominations for Best Editing (Simon Njoo) and Best Sound (Tara Webb, Robert Mackenzie). Also at ARIA Music Awards 2022 was awarded in the category Best Original Soundtrack / Show Album, through the contribution Australian Chamber Orchestra led by Richard Tognetti.

Where can you watch the movie River online?

River can be watched on several international platforms, although direct access may be limited in Romania, which is why a VPN might be useful for those outside the region. The film is also available to rent or buy on Amazon / Prime Video, for libraries or universities on Kanopy, in the USA as part of the Independent Lens program on PBS, on Plexus, and for those who have accounts in other regions, on Netflix Australia. Additional information about availability and platforms can be found at JustWatch.

Watch, don't touch, but stilland where do you watch the movie River?

Sure, there are less orthodox shortcuts to seeing the film, but watching it River it deserves to be paid. A small financial contribution, perhaps insignificant, but enough to allow other films of this level to flow, someday. Likewise here, on the blog, the stories of rivers must not stop, they must flow further. Next comes Hron, next comes Acheloos.

Will follow.

We write, we read, we flow together.

Because we, the people, are libraries.

We, the people, collect and pass on stories.