Lost Rivers

Once upon a time, in almost every industrial city, countless rivers flowed. We built houses along their banks. Our roads hugged their curves. And their currents fed our mills and factories. But as cities grew, we polluted rivers so much that they became conduits for deadly waterborne diseases like cholera, which was 19th century's version of the Black Plague. Our solution two centuries ago was to bury rivers underground and merge them with sewer networks. Today, under the city, they still flow, out of sight and out of mind… until now. That’s because urban dwellers are on a quest to reconnect with this denigrated natural world. Lost Rivers takes us on an adventure down below and across the globe, retracing the history of these lost urban rivers by plunging into archival maps and going underground with clandestine urban explorers. We search for the disappeared Petite rivière St-Pierre in Montreal, the Garrison Creek in Toronto, the River Tyburn in London, the Saw Mill River in New York, and the Bova-Celato River in Bresica, Italy. Could we see these rivers again? To find the answer, we meet visionary urban thinkers, activists and artists from around the world.

Winner – Green Pitch 2010 (11th Planet in Focus International Environmental Film Festival)
Official Selection – Hot Docs Forum 2011 
Best International Projects Showcase (BIPS) –  Sunny Side of the Doc 2011
Best Canadian Feature Film – Honourable Mention – Planet in Focus Film Festival

Written and Directed by | Caroline Bâcle
Produced by | Katarina Soukup 
Director of Photography | Alexandre Domingue 
Editor | Howard Goldberg
Original Music | John Wilson
Animation | Eva Cvijanovic
Narration | Caroline Bâcle 
Sound | David Gertsman (MPSE), Roger Guérin (MPSE), Emory Murchison, Philippe Scultéty, Lynne Trepanier, Sylvain Vary
Interactive Producers | Katarina Soukup, Kim Sawchuk
Interactive Team | Jonathan Bélisle, Jonathan Grenier, Kevin Yuen Kit Lo, Faisal Lutchmedial, Magdalena Olszanowski, Sarah Ring, Isabella Salas, Tamara Scherbak, Samuel Thulin