American River at 2021 Montclair Film Festival
October 26th, 2021 by Mr. C
American River was a wonderful eye opening film that documented the journey of Mary Bruno & guide Carl Alderson on a 4 day, 80 mile kayak through the pristine humble beginning flow of pureness & serenity of the Passaic River in Mendham, NJ to the very end when the Passaic river erects to form a chemical kaiju monster in Newark, NJ. The film is based on Mary Bruno’s 2012 book, An American River: From Paradise to Superfund. This would be Mary Bruno’s 2nd time navigating the Passaic River from beginning to end – only 10 years later from her first adventure. Her Kayak journey with Carl will reveal alot about the health of our river (and ultimately us humans) and in turn will educate and entertain us viewers just as much. On this 2nd journey and also based on the Q/A after the film, it seemed as if Mary came to grips & somewhat closure about the Passaic river that she grew up being afraid of while living in North Arlington, NJ.
So many thoughts flashed in my mind after watching American River
with opposite ends of the feel spectrum regarding the good of humanity
and the reckless abandon of humans in the way we treat our environment & each other for that matter. I’m not going to get into the details about
what lurks at the end of the Passaic river that causes it to be one of the most toxic if not THE undisputed belt holder of Superfund cleanup sites in our country. It is quite maddening that our nation and most of humanity would place money and industry first before our own health and well being. That being said, like our protagonists in the film say – what is done is done. We have to educate ourselves and learn from the past. And first and foremost, we have to put all our efforts to cleanup the mess or at least minimize it as much as possible.
I have to say that the kayak journey that Mary & Carl takes us on is so much fun & entertaining as much as it was scary & terrifying finding out what has
become of our river due to industry and greed. The banter between the two while kayaking and adventures on land was so enjoyable! I was excited to see areas of the Passaic river that I had never seen like in Mendham, Chatham, Summit, & even Berkeley Heights. This upper part of the river looks nothing like the area I’m familiar with. The section known as the lower 17 miles of the river like in Newark, Kearny, North Arlington, Garfield, Paterson, Elmwood Park, & Rutherford is the part that is closer to home to us. Unfortunately this lower 17 is also the most polluted part of the river. It was nice to learn about the Dundee Dam & the Little Falls Dam which is nearby to us but I had never known about. It was great to see familiar destinations in the film as well like the Great Falls of Paterson and them having lunch at Libby’s Lunch! The interactions Mary & Carl come across while talking to locals from every town they stop at was the key in learning about peoples experiences & different sections of the Passaic River.
There are so many things that I learned about our River and why we should preserve this powerful natural resource. For one, water is life. Why would I want to pollute it?
For those that do not live in NJ and are not familiar with the Passaic River, the issues on the Passaic is not unique – sad to say. Industrialization, business, ignorance, pollution, & selfishness applies to any person USA in any River USA.
I most definitely recommend watching AMERICAN RIVER and to read Mary Bruno’s book – An American River: From Paradise to Superfund .
Let’s do our part to keep our waters clean! Pete Seeger would approve!
Tags: documentary, mary bruno, passaic river
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