Greenwich Entertainment acquires NA rights to Jennifer Peedom’s Environmental Documentary River, read by Willem Dafoe

EXCLUSIVE: Greenwich Entertainment has acquired the North American rights to Jennifer Peedom’s visually stunning documentary Flow“a profound cinematic and musical reflection on how rivers have shaped both the vast landscapes of the planet and the entirety of human existence.”

Greenwich plans to release the film in theaters on April 21st ahead of Earth Day on April 22nd. Flow is a sequel to Peedom’s 2017 documentary mountain – also a Greenwich release – and reunites the director with her creative collaborators on that earlier film, including the Australian Chamber Orchestra, narrator Willem Dafoe and writer Robert Macfarlane.

“Throughout history, rivers have shaped our landscapes and our civilizations; flowed through our cultures and dreams,” reads a description of the documentary. “Flow guide the audience through space and time; The film spans six continents and uses exceptional cinematography. He shows rivers on a scale and from perspectives never seen before. The combination of image, music and poetic script creates a dreamy film that honors the wildness of the rivers, but also recognizes their vulnerability in the face of increased human demands.

In a statement, Greenwich co-president Ed Arentz noted: “Flow is a remarkable experience: a rare opportunity to break away from the hustle and bustle of everyday life and frenetic entertainment and immerse yourself in a meditative cinema focused exclusively on images of our planet’s flowing water systems, which one allow to engage with their wondrous beauty and beauty to viscerally revel in our increasingly dangerous interventions.”

Peedom commented on these interventions in an interview with Deadline in collaboration with FlowWorld Premiere at the Telluride Film Festival last September.

“We’ve now reached a point where there are very few rivers left on the planet that haven’t been drained, diverted or dammed in some way,” Peedom said. “If we dam our rivers, if we divert them, we’re stopping them from doing what they’re designed to do, which is spreading nutrients and sediment into our valleys so we can grow our food and all that stuff… Yeah, that. “is tremendous power in damming rivers or literal power – electricity – but it has many unintended consequences and we can shoot ourselves in the foot.”

Flow was written by Robert Macfarlane and edited by Peedom, Jo-Anne McGowan (mountain) and John Smithson (127 hours). Greenwich’s Ed Arentz negotiated the acquisition on behalf of the filmmakers with Dogwoof’s Cleo Veger. After the premiere at Telluride, Flow won several awards, including the Audience Award for Best International Film at the Florida Film Festival and the World Documentary Award at the Whistler Film Festival in British Columbia.

Flow is the second film in a planned trilogy mountain If the first. Dafoe’s narration can be heard in both documentaries.

“His voice is really like an instrument,” Peedom told Deadline. She and Dafoe were on different continents when they recorded the voiceover. “He was doing a movie … I’m on Zoom talking to him. I don’t know if we would have done it this way if Willem and I had never met. But we have met a few times now and have developed a good friendship mountain together that we have done personally.