The River (1937)
1937 · Ephemeral film · 2 min · dir. Pare Lorentz
- Documentary
- Short
- History
Synopsis
This short Depression-era documentary describes the importance of the Mississippi River to the United States. It laments the environmental destruction committed in the name of progress, particularly farming and timber practices which cause massive erosion and result in vast amounts of top soil being washed down the river into the Gulf of Mexico. The film focuses especially on the impact this has had on impoverished farmers. It ends on a very upbeat note, however, with a celebration of the TVA, "modern" farming technology, and the use of dams to control the river and prevent flooding.
Synopsis from OMDb
Details
- Director
- Pare Lorentz
- Running time
- 2 minutes
- Language
- English
- Collection
- Prelinger Archives
- Internet Archive item
- RiverThe1937_2
Subjects on the Internet Archive
- New Deal: Conservation
- Rivers: Mississippi
- Infrastructure
Cast & crew
Pare Lorentz Director
Thomas Chalmers
Reviews on the Internet Archive
★★★★★ · A classic and notable documentary · Erik Smith · 2007-07-02
This was one of the documentaries I remember studying in college as an early masterpiece of the form. Pare Lorenz, the filmmaker, became something of a celebrity with this film and his equally renowned "The Plow that Broke the Plains." Utilizing impressionistic photography and poetic narration, these two documentaries heightened awareness about the power of film. These are films a thousand times more stylized than the typical History Channel documentary of today. The fact that the federal government financed these two films is to me astonishing -- especially when you consider that "The Plow…