River of Grass

EVENT MENU & SCHEDULE: TBD

As part of O Cinema’s Awake & Aware series, River of Grass invites audiences into the fragile, ethereal beauty of the Florida Everglades, where memory, ecology, and resistance flow together like water through sawgrass. In this lyrical new documentary, filmmaker Sasha Wortzel reimagines The Everglades through a contemporary lens, weaving together archival imagery, personal reflection, and voices from the communities fighting to protect one of the world’s most endangered ecosystems. Guided by Miccosukee educator Betty Osceola, the film becomes an immersive meditation on what it means to listen deeply to a landscape at the edge of change.

This special Awake & Aware presentation begins with brunch, creating space to gather, reflect, and connect before the screening, followed by a live director Q&A exploring the film’s creation, the Everglades’ political and spiritual significance, and the urgent questions it raises for South Florida’s future. A moving and deeply local cinematic experience, River of Grass offers not just a film, but an invitation to see the land beneath our feet (and our responsibility to it) with renewed attention.

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POST-FILM Q&A WITH PRODUCER & RESEARCHER MONICA BERRA

Monica Berra is an Emmy-nominated producer who specializes in non-fiction, archive-based films. Working between Miami and NYC, she has more than a decade of experience in documentary long-form, short-form, and episodic content, across all aspects of production, from development through final delivery. Her work has been featured on HBO, PBS, WORLD Channel, Field of Vision, NYT Op-Docs, YouTube Originals, The Atlantic, and elsewhere.