News

London, November 10: A man swam across the entire length of the Amazon in 66 days by consuming two bottles of wine a day.

The 55-year-old swimmer, who became the greatest endurance swimmer in the world after he completed 3,274 miles, swimming 10 hours a day for 66 days, said that he was determined to swim across the world's most dangerous river or die trying, the Mirror reported.

A film has been made on Martin Strel's astonishing story of courage and determination called 'Big River Man' which will be releasing soon. (Ani)...

Along with Jonathan Caouette, Ingrid Kopp, Thom Powers, Esther Robinson, Morgan Spurlock, and John Vanco I’ll be co-hosting a benefit screening of John Maringouin’s Big River Man on Tuesday, September 4, at the IFC Center at 7:30Pm. All proceeds will go towards the filmmaker’s surgery fund and an urgently needed lung operation. Additionally, IFC will be donating an additional 50% of the box towards the fund as well as 100% of all income from membership sales and renewals purchased that evening. I’ve posted about Maringouin’s situation previously, and, with days left, the fund still needs monies to reach its $60,000 goal, which will enable a down payment on Maringouin’s surgery.

Here’s information on Big River Man and Maringouin:

In February 2007 Martin Strel began an insane attempt to be the first person to swim the entire length of the world’s most dangerous river, the mighty Amazon.

Director:           John Maringouin Starring:            Martin Strel, Borut Strel He's an overweight 53 year old man who used to be a professional gambler. He now teaches flamenco guitar for a living. He regularly drinks and drives, eats horse burgers, and spends his days in underground caves learning how to think like an animal. He is also 'the world's last superhero'. Meet Martin Strel, aka Big River Man. Strel is hardly the most typical of heroes, but as far as documentary subjects go he's a fine choice. Having taught himself to swim at the age of 6, Martin made the decision to become a marathon swimmer in his mid-30s, and has since set numerous world records. You wouldn't know it to look at him. His gut is large, and his thirst seemingly unquenchable - Strel drinks two bottles of wine a day whilst swimming, and much more besides when he's on dry land.

Fancy watching an overweight, alcoholic Slovenian man swim the length of the Amazon? No, it's not some new reality TV torture porn, but Big River Man, an extraordinary documentary on 50 year old endurance swimmer Martin Strel. Dodging piranhas, crocodiles, snakes and all manner of other hostile fauna, Strel campaigns for a cleaner environment by swimming the world's largest and most polluted rivers from the Yangtze to the Mississippi. It's his World Record for swimming the Amazon that's the subject of John Maringouin's documentary though, and with more than a whiff of Werner Herzog's fascination with the planet's eccentrics it should be well worth a look.

Big River Man is out on UK R2 DVD through Revolver Entertainment on 18th Jan 2010.

"When I was 7 or 8 years old, I swam very, very long, for hours and hours. Who knows? Maybe I was born like this," says champion endurance swimmer and larger-than-life eccentric Slovenian Martin Strel. In an exclusive interview he discusses facing pirates, piranhas and parasites in his record-setting 3,200-mile 66-day swim down the length of the Amazon, the 10,000 calorie per day diet he must follow when swimming and his hope that the documentary Big River Man will promote his message that the "Amazon is the most precious river in the world."

— Elaine Bergstrom, Channel Guide Magazine...

Interview by Alicia Van Couvering Filmmaker selected John Maringouin as one of our "25 New Faces of Independent Film" in 2006 after seeing Running Stumbled, the filmmaker's hilarious and disturbing film documenting his own reconciliation with his estranged father. This year he brought his remarkable film Big River Man to Sundance, a film several years in the making that documents the Amazon River expedition of Slovenian endurance swimmer Martin Strel. Strel’s stated mission is to bring environmental awareness to the rivers he swims, which have included some of the most polluted on Earth. Maringouin sets out to follow Strel’s expedition and to paint a portrait of this main, combining shots of Strel swimming by dead bodies and tales of...

Interview by Alicia Van Couvering Filmmaker selected John Maringouin as one of our “25 New Faces of Independent Film” in 2006 after seeing Running Stumbled, the filmmaker’s hilarious and disturbing film documenting his own reconciliation with his estranged father. This year he brought his remarkable film Big River Man to Sundance, a film several years in the making that documents the Amazon River expedition of Slovenian endurance swimmer Martin Strel. Strel’s stated mission is to bring environmental awareness to the rivers he swims, which have included some of the most polluted on Earth. Maringouin sets out to follow Strel’s expedition and to paint a portrait of this main, combining shots of Strel swimming by dead...

The only big film festival in my own backyard is back and it runs from November 12th through the 22nd. While it caters more to heavy run fest material and arthouse film, they do have some of the more interesting films playing this year:

Ryan Ward's excellent Son of the Sunshine which is one of my favorite films of the year. (review)

The weird, lengthy comedy The Revenant (review)

Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans

The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus

and much more. Program after the break!

In Competition

Children of Invention

Two first-generation Chinese kids in suburban Boston find themselves on their own after their desperate mother is unwittingly involved in a pyramid scheme and arrested. Older brother Raymond takes a page from her marketing seminars to start creating a life for himself and his sister - casting a strange, pint-sized reflection on the American Dream.

Footprints...

LONDON -- U.K. indie distributor Revolver Entertainment corralled U.K. rights to a pair of pictures on the eve of the Toronto International Film Festival.

The company has picked up John Maringouin's documentary "Big River Man", which details the story of 55-year-old Balkan Martin Strel -- the only man to swim the length of the Yangtze, Mississippi and Danube rivers -- as he attempts to be the first person to swim the length of the Amazon.

Directed by Maringouin, "River" is produced by Maria Florio, Molly Hassell and Molly Lynch at Self Pictures/Earthworks Films. Mickey Cottrell is executive producer.

Revolver also has picked up John Dahl's "You Kill Me" from Capitol Films. The film stars Ben Kingsley, Tea Leoni and Luke Wilson.