Rock The Boat: Saving America’s Wildest River Screens April 18

A party and screening of Rock The Boat: Saving America’s Wildest River, about the Los Angeles River will benefit the Topanga Watershed Committee on April 18 at Froggy’s restaurant, from 7-10 p.m. The event will feature live music and a silent auction.

The award-winning documentary, directed by Thea Mercouffer and produced by Heather Louise Parker, Michael Kuehnert and Topangan Randi Johnson, follows an illegal, outrageous kayaking expedition down the 51-mile, cemented-in L.A River, from Canoga Park to Long Beach, in an act of civil disobedience.

It tells the story of the troubled river—its history and its future—and explores how we can create livable, sustainable cities in the face of climate change and pending water shortages.

Led by satirical writer and northern Virginia native George Wolfe, a ragtag group of boaters struggles to prove the river’s navigability in order to win Clean Water Act protections. This urban odyssey takes on national political proportions as it leads to changes in federal policy and opens up public access to the long-neglected, much-abused waterway.”

“We are humbled by the enthusiasm for this film and how it resonates with other river communities,” says the film’s director, Thea Mercouffer. “We love that the storylines and struggles portrayed in the film underscore the inherent possibilities of all our nation’s troubled waterways.”

Along with the Anacostia Watershed in D.C./Maryland and the Patapsco Watershed (Baltimore area), the Los Angeles River is one of seven urban rivers to receive attention from a federal urban partnership pilot program. The others are: the Bronx and Harlem River Watersheds, the South Platte River in Denver, Lake Pontchartain of New Orleans, and the Northwest Indiana area.

President Obama’s America's Great Outdoors initiative puts an emphasis on restoring urban communities by combining grassroots efforts with federal stimuli.

As former EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson says in the film, “When we talk about the environment, we cannot think just about wide open, beautiful spaces; we have to think about a river with a concrete bottom, that flows through one of our nation’s largest cities.”

Rock the Boat was honored as Best Environmental Film by the 2013 Reel Paddling Film Festival.

It won the People's Choice award at the Wild & Scenic Film Festival; the ISLA Earth Award of Merit for Environmental Filmmaking at the Catalina Film Festival; and Best Feature Film Award at the FILManthropy Film Festival.

George Wolfe, the lead kayaker in the film, has been recognized with several conservation awards: the River Hero award by the River Network, the Green Paddle award by the American Canoe Association, and the River Warrior award by Resources Renewal Institute.

Rock The Boat: Saving America’s Wildest Riveris available for purchase at The Video Project: videoproject.com/rockboat.html.

For more information: visit rocktheboatfilm.com.

To set up a community screening with your organization or in your area, contact Thea Mercouffer at: contact@rocktheboatfilm.com.