I Am The River, The River Is Me | Bangalow Film Festival 2025

I Am The River, The River Is Me 
Petr Lom 
The Netherlands | 2024 | 90 | All Ages
NSW Premiere 

The Whanganui River in Aotearoa/New Zealand is the first river in the world to be recognized as a legal person, as a living and indivisible being.  

Māori river guardian Ned Tapa is joined by First Nations Elder Brendan Kennedy and his activist daughter Melissa Kennedy, who are dedicated to saving their river back home; artist Justine Muller; an international film crew and some close friends (as well as Ned’s dog Jimmy) on a five-day trip down the sacred river. 

The river is the main character of this film. Both mirror and inspiration, the river unites all the travelers organically, where everyone has a voice to share stories of humor and light, and a space to heal from the darkness of the past, of enduring historical injustice.  

Made over a three-year period, in close collaboration with the Whanganui Māori, the film is a positive, urgent call to action for the rights of nature: now the fastest growing legal movement in the world.  

“Filled with beautiful meditative images of the breathtaking nature.” – Movies That Matter 

“That the Whanganui River is very much the lead character of the film is both appropriate and profound.” – Business Doc Europe