A River Below | Telescope Film
A River Below

A River Below

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  • Colombia,
  • United States
  • 2017
  • · 86m

Director Mark Grieco
Cast Richard Rasmussen, Fernando Trujillo
Genre Documentary

Deep in the Amazon, the population of the pink river dolphin is dwindling. Docile and easy to catch, this near-mythical animal is being hunted to extinction. But two activists are each working tirelessly to raise awareness and protect the species. One a marine biologist and the other a TV star, each has their own unique approach to their shared goal.

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What are critics saying?

100

Village Voice by Serena Donadoni

The intoxicating A River Below contains elements of immersive nature documentaries and shocking wildlife exposes (like Blackfish and The Cove), but director Mark Grieco’s profile of two driven conservationists tells a more slippery tale.

90

Screen Daily by Allan Hunter

Director Mark Grieco grabs our attention by going beyond the obvious. Exploring the consequences of well-intentioned actions and providing a sense of the much bigger picture transforms A River Below into an unexpectedly compelling proposition.

90

Screen International by Allan Hunter

Director Mark Grieco grabs our attention by going beyond the obvious. Exploring the consequences of well-intentioned actions and providing a sense of the much bigger picture transforms A River Below into an unexpectedly compelling proposition.

80

Los Angeles Times by Michael Rechtshaffen

Vividly photographed by René Diaz and adroitly edited by Dan Swietlik, A River Below skillfully — and quite compellingly — navigates the murky complexities of contemporary reality filmmaking.

80

The New York Times by Ken Jaworowski

The truth turns into a tangled mess in A River Below, a bold and urgent documentary whose seemingly straightforward story quickly runs awry.

75

The Film Stage by John Fink

Unintentionally timely, A River Below may be read as a Trump-era document, a tale of environmentalists versus local industry.

70

Variety by Nick Schager

In the stories of both men, Grieco’s film highlights the double-edged nature of eye-opening visuals, which are just as apt to enrage others and endanger the messenger as they are to achieve noble ends.

70

Paste Magazine by Jacob Oller

A River Below is pure investigative journalism.