General Admission: $8
Additional donations will be accepted at the event. Friends of celebrated documentarian John Maringouin are uniting to raise money for an urgent lung cancer operation. Introduction by James Clauer, Director of Photography (Brazil), Editing Consultant.

WINNER: World Cinema Cinematography Award-Sundance '09.

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 a Werner Herzog epic and a Saturday Night Live skit starting with 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.

"The pivotal figure in the excellent American Documentary "Big River Man" from the resourceful young director John Maringouin…has so much personality it's a wonder he fits on the screen" -Manohla Dargis, NY Times