Missed The River of Mirrors in the cinema? Click here to buy or rent:
Back in 2018, in the back of a jeep along the Gilgit River in Northern Pakistan Joe Fender and I had a long conversation that would reshape our lives over the next five years. We both have an interest in the more art-house genre of films and we were crying out for someone to make a kayaking film that stepped away from the high adrenaline, fast paced style that has become so common these days. As time went on, with the ever increasing Instagramification of content, we decided we had to make a film that slows down, and appreciates the beauty of water, putting the river at the forefront, not the people or the stunts.
Fast forward to 2020 and Palm brand manager Paul Robertson challenged me to pitch him a film. With the world slowly coming out of lockdowns, it wasn’t until September 2021 that I found myself walking along canyon rims in Iceland, with Joe, discussing the shots for the opening sequence for The River of Mirrors.
We wanted to create something different, something that captured the ebbs and flows of a river journey, taking the time to capture the quiet and serene moments of a river trip that accompany the chaos of whitewater, inspired by films like Baraka and Koyaanisqatsi.
The concept was relatively simple, we wanted to move the genre of kayak films away from the well trodden documentary style, and move it in the direction of the more ethereal and take a step away from reality. To do this, we chose four locations that shared similar water colours, editing them together to create a fictional river that would get the viewer’s imagination running wild.
To keep logistics and costs down, we opted for a very small crew. In Iceland and Norway it was just Joe in the kayak and myself with the camera, and then in Chile we were joined by silky smooth, slalom backgrounded Lauren Strickland. In Peru, for the grand surf finale, we called in the legend of the Gower and waveski guru Jem Howe.
To distance ourselves from the high octane tropes of conventional kayak films, we knew score was going to be important, and reached out to Slowly Rolling Camera, a band that we’ve loved for years whose cinematic style would bring the pace down to something that aligned with our vision. We knew we were onto a winner when, in one of the first conversations with the band, it turned out that they had seen Koyaanisqatsi in the cinema while they were students and, from the get go, we were talking the same language.
Forever trying to resist the throwaway nature of social media, we chose to release the film in cinemas only, hoping to create a genuinely memorable experience for people, and now the tour is over, we are stoked to share it with you online.
