I Am the River, the River Is Me
2024 Movies That Matter
2024 Doc Edge
A canoe trip down the Whanganui River in New Zealand, led by a Māori elder, joined by a Māori river guardian Ned Tapa, his friends and family, an international film crew, becomes a call to action to draw closer to nature and fight climate change through a fundamental value shift. The river is the main character of this film. Both mirror and inspiration, the river unites all the travelers organically, where everyone has a voice – including the film crew – to share stories of humor and light, and a space to heal from the darkness of the past, of enduring historical injustice. The film is an invitation to experience these values: of thinking about our relationship to the world around us – to above all the natural world – as one of intergenerational care and guardianship rather than just ownership/use/extraction.
Directors
Petr Lom
Petr Lom was born in Prague in 1968, grew up in Canada, and is now based in The Netherlands with his Dutch wife Corinne van Egeraat. He received his Ph.D. in political philosophy from Harvard and was Associate Professor at George Soros’ Central European University in human rights and philosophy. In 2003, he became an independent documentary director and producer specializing in human rights film. His award-winning films have been broadcast in over thirty countries and screened at more than two hundred and fifty film festivals around the world including Sundance and the Berlinale.