Green Bay filmmaker's documentary on the Lower Fox River to air on PBS Wisconsin

Kendra Meinert, Green Bay Press-Gazette
·2 min read
Green Bay filmmaker Daniel Larson's documentary about the Lower Fox River, "The Power of the River," will make its PBS Wisconsin premiere on March 2. He'll also appear on-air to talk about it.
Green Bay filmmaker Daniel Larson's documentary about the Lower Fox River, "The Power of the River," will make its PBS Wisconsin premiere on March 2. He'll also appear on-air to talk about it.

A Green Bay filmmaker’s documentary on the Lower Fox River is set to make its PBS Wisconsin premiere.

“The Power of the River” by Daniel Larson will air at 8 p.m. Thursday. It will be the first chance for a statewide audience to see the film since it debuted with local screenings in De Pere and Menasha last summer.

The film tells the story of how the power of the river was discovered over the past 12,000 years, weaving interviews with people from northeastern Wisconsin with aerial footage and archival photos. It spans the Wisconsin glaciation that created the landscape for the river and the arrival of area's original residents, the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin, to the river's connection to wildlife, including bald eagles, and its system of 17 locks.

Larson, founder and owner of Com-Video Productions, will make several brief appearances to talk about the film during what is part of an evening of Wisconsin-themed programming for PBS Wisconsin’s membership drive.

“‘The Power of the River’ acts as a road map to exploring the banks of the Lower Fox River, and I am grateful to 28 people who were interviewed and contributed to the film with their stories and photos," Larson said. "Dan Weaver of De Pere did an amazing job with his compositions and scoring of the music track."

The Fox River runs through De Pere near St. Norbert College.
The Fox River runs through De Pere near St. Norbert College.

It’s the second in Larson's trilogy of films about Wisconsin’s geography. “The Great Ledge,” about the Niagara Escarpment, premiered in 2017. The third documentary will focus on the bay of Green Bay.

After its PBS Wisconsin premiere, “The Power of the River” will go into a two-year rotation on the Wisconsin Channel. It will also be shown as part of the Green Bay Film Festival on Aug. 12 at The Tarlton Theatre.

The film screened last fall at the Fresh Coast Film Festival in Marquette, Michigan. It’s available to schools at no cost, and the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay Bay is including it in its freshwater curriculum.

The Schneider Foundation and the Union Hotel & Restaurant in De Pere helped to cover some of the production costs of the 57-minute documentary. Larson financed the rest.

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Kendra Meinert is an entertainment and feature writer at the Green Bay Press-Gazette. Contact her at 920-431-8347 or kmeinert@greenbay.gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @KendraMeinert.

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This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: PBS Wisconsin to air Green Bay man's film about Lower Fox River