River Of Grass (2025)- Shows Deep Affection For The Everglades
While almost every single day I eat, sleep, and breathe audio description and accessibility, there are times when I feel compelled by the subject matter, or a specific person being involved, and I’m aware the project doesn’t have audio description. I was offered the opportunity to screen the documentary River Of Grass, and it felt like a no brainer. I’m a Floridian. I’m a member of Critics Association Of Central Florida. For most of my life, I’ve lived in Florida. Technically, not born here, but I moved so young I don’t remember being born a Californian. I did for a short term live in the Ozarks in Southwest Missouri, so I often find myself drawn to projects there as well. but, I’ve lived all over Florida. I went to elementary school in Fort Myers, and my family had close friends in Fort Lauderdale, so we were constantly shooting across Alligator Alley to spend time on the other coast. I was in Florida for Andrew, Katrina, Irma, and dozens of hurricanes so devastating that their names were retired. I remember waking up on a Sunday morning in June to find out that a local gay nightclub had just become one of the worst mass shootings in history. I spent the whole day making sure everyone I knew was OK. And, I remember watching, horrified, as Valentines Day became another statistically horrific day for the students of Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School.
So, when I discovered a documentary about the very Everglades I grew up driving through, and featuring a look at a woman whose activism and leadership caused a school to be named after her in the first place, I was in. Sure, it would be nice to have audio description, so those who are blind and low vision, and haven’t seen the Everglades first hand, or gone out on a boat through the marshy waters to stare at a bunch of alligators who are now so threatened by pythons that Peacock made a sitcom about hunting those pythons that ran for two seasons. Not everyone has experienced the natural beauty of Florida, which is under constant threat, not just from invasive species, but also developers. This film tackled so much, yet I still wanted more. it is a good thing to walk away from a film feeling like you had at least another 10-15 minutes left in you.
The sounds of the Everglades came through, the sleight score used feels appropriate for meditation, something you might want to do in the presence of natural beauty. This is what Florida should be known for. Not mass shootings. Marjorie Stoneman Douglas should be known for her work in protecting what makes Florida unique, not for being the site where yet another kid with a gun made headlines with her name.
Florida Man. That’s a term used so often. We have some of the weirdest crimes that get reported. It feels like every day, someone is walking into a Wal-Mart with a pet Llama that is their emotional support animal. Every time I see a story like that, I know it happened somewhere in this state. We’re run by people who aren’t concerned with preserving these Everglades, protecting the flora and fauna, and the purity of the water. As this documentary points out, red tide is a problem we seem deeply ill equipped to stop.
So, if you’re going to come here for “The Florida Project”, or leave trash on our beaches, maybe take a trip down south and see what it is people like Marjorie Stoneman Douglas fought so hard to preserve, and this documentary so beautifully captures. Aside fro the lack of audio description, my biggest complaint is that it was too short, and I wanted more. More stories of the glades.
And if you’re looking for a follow-up documentary, the story behind the massive amount of alligators in Lake Jesup is quite fascinating.
Fresh: Final Grade: A-
