Flagler College and the Crisp-Ellert Art Museum (CEAM) are pleased to announce a special screening of the documentary "RIVER OF GRASS" (2025, 83 minutes), directed by New York-based artist and filmmaker Sasha Wortzel, on Tuesday, Oct. 13, from 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the Gamache-Koger Theater in Ringhaver Student Center at 50 Sevilla St. in St. Augustine. The film will be followed by a Q&A session with Wortzel, moderated by Anne Schindler, host of WJCT’s "First Coast Connect." This event is free and open to the public. Seating is limited, and all attendees must RSVP here. This event is presented in collaboration with Flagler College’s Lifelong Learning Institute and the St. Augustine Film Society.
"RIVER OF GRASS" (2025) is a present-day reimagining of environmentalist Marjory Stoneman Douglas’s celebrated book, “The Everglades: River of Grass” (1947), which forever changed the public’s understanding of the area from worthless swamps to an essential source of freshwater, enabling the ecosystem to endure, just barely, today. In the wake of a hurricane, filmmaker Sasha Wortzel journeys across the Everglades with Miccosukee Tribe of Indians educator and activist Betty Osceola. Interweaving Douglas's writing, personal narration, present-day verité, and archival footage, “RIVER OF GRASS” reveals how this country’s origin story haunts and inextricably shapes contemporary American life, while asking how we might weather coming storms better together.
Wortzel is an award-winning filmmaker and interdisciplinary artist using video, installation, sculpture, and sound to explore how past and present are inextricably linked through resonant spaces and their hauntings. “RIVER OF GRASS” (2025) is her first feature documentary, which won the Pare Lorentz Award from IDA, the Hot Docs Joan VanDuzer Special Jury Prize - International Feature Documentary, and the Mead Audience Award, among others. The film received institutional support from Sundance, Ford Foundation, Sandbox Films, Knight Foundation, Doc Society, Field of Vision, and Chicken & Egg Pictures. Her short films include “HOW TO CARRY WATER” (2023), an IDA Awards nominee for best short documentary; “THIS IS AN ADDRESS” (2020), distributed by Field of Vision; and “HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MARSHA!” (2018; co-director Tourmaline), which won special mention at Outfest and is in the permanent collection of the Studio Museum of Harlem. Wortzel was an Artist-in-Residence at Crisp-Ellert Art Museum at Flagler College in 2021, and returned in 2022, bringing her exhibition “Dreams of Unknown Islands” to CEAM.
Anne Schindler joined WJCT News as host of First Coast Connect in October 2023, after nearly three decades in Jacksonville print and television. Schindler has worked in the Jacksonville media market since 1995, first as a reporter for the original Folio Weekly, then as the publication’s editor-in-chief from 2002 until her departure. In 2012, she transitioned to television as executive producer of special projects for First Coast News, Northeast Florida’s NBC and ABC affiliates. She currently serves as chair of the Northeast Florida Media Committee and is a member of the University of North Florida School of Communication’s Professional Advisory Board.
The Crisp-Ellert Art Museum is an accessible building. If you are a person with a disability and need reasonable accommodation, please contact Phil Pownall at 904-819-6460. Sign Language Interpreters are available upon request with a minimum of three days’ notice.
ABOUT CRISP-ELLERT ART MUSEUM: CEAM programming is supported through grants from the Dr. JoAnn Crisp-Ellert Fund at The Community Foundation for Northeast Florida, and the St. Johns County Tourist Development Council administered through the St. Johns Cultural Council. Additional support is provided by VW of St. Augustine, VyStar Credit Union, and AC Hotel St. Augustine. For more information on CEAM programming, please visit, or contact CEAM Director Julie Dickover at 904-826-8530 or jdickover@flagler.edu. Photos to accompany the press release are available here. Photos courtesy of the artist.
