The Mighty River

Clean water, essential to all forms of life, is becoming increasingly rare. Like deforestation, the loss of clean water is a global tragedy. Following the international success of The Man Who Planted Trees, which won an Oscar® and led to the planting of millions of trees, Frédéric Back decided to create a film about the St. Lawrence River. ‘Magtogoek,’ as it is called by the Mi’kmaq people, originates in the Great Lakes, follows a long course through Ontario and Quebec, and then drains into the Atlantic. Its waters, which once teemed with animal and plant life, today bear witness to decades of over-exploitation and industrial pollution. Alas, all the rivers of the world are suffering the same fate!

In undertaking this last major animation project, the activist filmmaker was driven by the hope that the film’s wealth of astonishing information on the St. Lawrence River and its glorious past would raise awareness and inspire concrete actions to save this and other much-degraded natural resources.