Varsity 5 Sunday, April 15, 2018 - 3:30 PM

A River Below

Documentary Feature

96 minutes

2017

Director(s): Mark Grieco

USA, Brazil, Colombia, Peru

Synopsis

Oregon Premiere

A documentary as dramatic and multilayered as the Amazon River itself, A River Below depicts a Columbian marine biologist and a Brazilian TV star who are each trying to save the indigenous pink river dolphin from extinction. When graphic footage of the brutal killing of a dolphin is shown on the TV host’s popular prime-time show, the country shuts down the abusive fishing industry that threatens the dolphins. A victory for environmental activism, it would seem. But the story takes a bizarre turn when the ethics of its celebrity protagonist are called into question and both men end up at the center of a spiraling media scandal. Subtitles

Sponsored by Rogue Creamery

Director’s Statement

In the first weeks of production, we interviewed the fishermen all around the Amazon rather than just the conservationists to find out what was going on. Off camera, they whispered their suspicions about a video with brutal dolphin killing images that led to a rapid and unprecedented protection for the animal. As we dug deeper, we found an amazing web of characters, deceit, and thorny ethical dilemmas. Just by chance, I stumbled upon a story that dovetailed perfectly with my own concerns about truth in images, media influence and distortion, performance for the camera, and my role in all of this as a documentary filmmaker. Of course the people—their stories and lives—are real, but the edited collection of these images with music, designed sound, and craft that purport to show their “realness” is far from it.