Documentary on Big River Man Premieres at Sundance

John Maringouin, Martin Strel, Borut Strel, and a friend at Sundance in Park City

Park City, 19 January - A documentary about Slovenian adventure swimmer Martin Strel premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in Utah, US, on Friday. "Big River Man" follows Strel's recordbreaking swim of the Amazon river in 2007, but also highlights environmental issues.

The documentary has received good reviews and met with warm response from the audience. Entertainment weekly Variety says that the film is perfect for the Sundance Festival, as it manages to incorporate an environmental message into a comical story. 

"If Robert Redford [the festival's chair] says the film is excellent, there is probably something about it," said Strel, who already gave several interviews about the film for the US media. The film is among the 218 feature films, documentaries and short films selected among nearly 3,000 entries for the event this year. It will see four screenings.

Martin Strel at Sundance before the screening of the documentary on his grand achievement in the Amazon.

The director, John Maringouin, said ahead of the premiere that the producers had had at first certain problems with funding the project about an "overweight man who swims 3,000 miles of water that is not even fit for swimming". However, actress Olivia Newton John that eventually stepped in with her funds. She is also the executive producer of the film in which Strel's son, Borut, tells the story of his father's swimming feats. 

Before conquesting the Amazon in 2007, Strel braved the most polluted rivers in the world, including the Yangtze, Mississippi and Danube, sending out a strong environmental message. 

The main purpose of the Amazon swim, for instance, was to point to the excessive exploitation of the Amazon rainforest and its impact on the global climate. 

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You may also read a detailed review of the documentary as published in Variety.com.