This story is part of True/False Conversations, a series of in-depth interviews with the filmmakers of this year’s True/False Film Fest. Find the rest of them here.
Filmmaker Sasha Wortzel grew up near the Everglades wetlands. Her experience and a classic book, The Everglades: River of Grass, by activist Marjory Stoneman Douglas inspired her to take a deeper look into the people and wildlife most impacted by the Everglades.
The Seminole people named the Florida Everglades “Pah-hai-Okee,” or “grassy waters.” Wrotzel’s documentary film River of Grass screens this weekend at True/False Film Fest.
KBIA’s Olivia Mizelle spoke with Wortzel about the film. Here's an excerpt from their conversation:
Olivia Mizelle: You say in the film that Marjory Stoneman Douglas came to you in a dream. Do you want to talk a little bit about what that was like?
Sasha Wortzel: She did literally come to me in a dream. I recall I had started researching and developing a project that would be a reimagining of a book that she wrote in the 1940s titled The Everglades: River of Grass, which was really the first book that sort of broke down in accessible terms for the public how the water flowed in the Everglades, but then also told this larger story of the kind of cultural sort of legacy of place and the way that the watershed had shaped the relationships of all the people, plants and animals who call that region home. And I was in the midst of starting the project when one night, she came to me in a dream and she said something like, “Sasha, it's great that you're making a film based on my book, but what about me? I have some things to say.”
And so I woke up and I thought, you know, if the ghost of a celebrated author and environmentalist comes to you in a dream with a request, maybe it's a good idea to to honor that.
Olivia Mizelle: Why do you think humans feel so connected to water?
Sasha Wortzel: We are not separate from water. You know, water is what sustains us and makes all life possible on this planet. We are made of water. And, similarly to us, we feel things, we have memory, and so does our water. And so I think that's part of what connects us so deeply to our water bodies, our rivers, our streams, our springs, our oceans.
And also I think that the making of this film just further brought home for me the fact that history and the political climate, everything that unfolds on land is shaped by our waterways and in relationship with water.
Olivia Mizelle: And then, how would you describe your connection to water, growing up in the Everglades?
Sasha Wortzel: I think that I was extremely privileged to grow up in a place surrounded by both abundant fresh water and salt water, and really beautiful, incredible wetlands that I had access to, and I found a lot of refuge in those spaces growing up and a lot of joy.
And unfortunately, in my lifetime, I've watched many of those places radically change or disappear altogether. And I've watched, you know, the water quality just really decline, so much so that it's having not just impacts on wildlife, but also on human life and our health. Especially in the community where I grew up right now, where we're experiencing a massive red tide bloom on the Gulf Coast.
Olivia Mizelle: What made you want to focus in on a lot of the Indigenous community in the area?
Sasha Wortzel: I don't believe it's possible to talk about land and the environment, or, really, about the sort of origin stories of of this country, without including the voices, perspectives and stories of Indigenous people,
Olivia Mizelle: Well, I’ll end on a little bit of a lighter question: What was your favorite part of filming?
Sasha Wortzel: I got to go on so many adventures. I got to ride on a lot of boats, fast airboats through the Everglades, where you feel like you're flying. Hours out in the beautiful blue waters of Florida Bay with stone crab fishermen. You know, riding on the top of a truck at night, with Python hunters, with this incredible mother daughter team removing invasives from the Everglades, to walking pretty much almost in silence around Lake Okeechobee, the headwaters of the Everglades.
My favorite part of making this work has been the way in which I've gotten to engage in a deeper relationship with my home and the people who share this home with me.
River of Grass screens at the True/False Film Festival, happening this weekend, in Columbia. Hear more True/False Conversations here.
