SUMMER SHOWCASE
DIRECTOR John Maringouin
PRODUCERS Maria Florio, Molly Lynch,
John Maringouin, Kevin Ragsdale
EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS Olivia Newton-John
Easterling, John Easterling, Mickey Cottrell
EDITORS John Maringouin, Molly Lynch
FEATURING Martin Strel, Borut Strel,
Matthew Mohlke
Big River Man
USA/ENGLAND 100 minutes
English and Slovenian with English subtitles
This hallucinatory odyssey follows a middle-aged, pot-bellied, hard-
drinking Slovenian—the endurance swimmer Martin Strel—stroke
by stroke into the heart of darkness as he attempts to swim the
long and perilous Amazon River. The film plays like a mash-up of
JOHN MARINGOUIN
a Werner Herzog epic and a Saturday Night Live skit starting with
BORN: i��"��i>��]�
�U�1973
Strel’s preparations which include everything from power breathing to
spending time in a cave in order to think like an animal. Once the trip
begins, the relentless sun, daily exposure to innumerable parasites,
and Strel’s unadjusted alcohol consumption begin to take their
physical and mental toll.
Maringouin, who captured his father’s corrosive marriage in Running
Stumbled, has a gift for evoking hellish situations and mental turmoil
on screen. Here, he uses expressionistic sound, camerawork, and
editing to make something mysterious, monumental, but still a little
bit absurd out of Strel’s deteriorating psychological state. Many of
the film’s peculiarities strain belief: The horseburgers? The puppet-
wielding Brazilin priest? You may not be convinced of the veracity
of each detail, but you will likely be very happy to be along on the
journey.
— Rachel Rosen
HOSTED BY International Documentary Association (IDA)
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