ACO Reunites With Jennifer Peedom For RIVER, a Cinematic and Musical Odyssey

The Australian Chamber Orchestra and Stranger Than Fiction's Jennifer Peedom have reunited to create River, a profound cinematic and musical reflection on how rivers have shaped both the planet's elaborate landscapes and human existence. The film is a sequel to their record-breaking collaboration Mountain, which became the highest-grossing homegrown documentary in Australian cinemas ever following its 2017 release.

Director Jennifer Peedom describes River as an ode to these 'arteries of the planet'.

"Humans love rivers," said Peedom. "The number of films, books, and poems with "river" in their titles are impossible to count. And yet, the state of rivers around the world indicates that we seem to have lost sight of their importance to our existence.

"River takes a birds'-eye view of humanity's relationship with our most precious resource through time. It is a story about the limits of human control, and how our short-sighted attempts to control nature have backfired. It's about the fragmentation of rivers and the long-term impact this is having on the living world."

River is extraordinary in that it has been created to be presented live in concert. The ACO perform live onstage during the screening of the film, directed from the violin by ACO Artistic Director Richard Tognetti, who also curated the score for the production.

"River has been conceived as both a live performance experience and a theatrical film, which is a rare, if not unique, occurrence in the world of film and concert making," said Tognetti. "Creating the score for a film that will be performed live presents its own challenges, but when you've just got strings and electronics to work with, instead of say a full orchestra, you're forced to be original. The challenge makes you think differently.

"The score includes Jonny Greenwood's Water, an exquisite, intricate piece, based on a poem, that presented an ideal match to footage of the funeral pyres on the edge of the Ganges in India. I'm also delighted that we were able to include JS Bach's Chaconne, in a new arrangement for string orchestra. Based on a four-bar motif, it starts small and then grows into something that is overwhelmingly epic in form and texture, much like a river. That's the genius of Bach."

Tognetti worked in close partnership with Peedom to create a score which spans existing music by composers including JS Bach, Vivaldi, Mahler and Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood to new music by Australian composer and musician William Barton, Piers Burbrook de Vere and Tognetti himself.

The film includes footage from 39 countries, including Australia, with script written by UK writer and environmentalist Robert Macfarlane who also collaborated with Peedom and Tognetti on Mountain.

River will be presented live in concert with the ACO 29 July -10 August, followed by a cinema release later in 2021 through Madman Entertainment.