Private Project

Eden River

Central America, 1961: Cultural, moral, and ancestral tensions rise between three sea turtle poachers seeking their fortune on the offshore nesting grounds.

Eden River is an ethnographically sound narrative short made with the collaboration of several Belizean culture groups, shot on location in some of the country's most remote river systems and islands with a mostly-local crew.

  • Jack Evans
    Director
  • Jack Evans
    Writer
  • Jack Evans
    Producer
  • Logan Young
    Producer
  • Mike Evans
    Producer
  • Wade Lynton
    Producer
  • James Arran Bevis
    Producer
  • Tito West
    Producer
  • Joe Taylor
    Key Cast
    "Raib "
  • Ramsden Madeus
    Key Cast
    "Desmond"
  • Gildon Rowland
    Key Cast
    "Garwin"
  • Tito West
    Director of Photography
  • Project Type:
    Short
  • Runtime:
    20 minutes 27 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    November 28, 2022
  • Production Budget:
    70,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    Belize
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No
  • The Cannes World Film Festival
    Cannes
    France
    Screening Date TBA
    Winner: Best First Time Filmmaker (Shorts); Nominated: Best Short
  • Venice Shorts
    Venice, California
    United States
    Screening Date TBA
    Best Producer(s)
  • The Santa Fe Film Festival
    Santa Fe, New Mexico
    United States
    February 24, 2023
    Southwest Premiere
    Best Short Story, Best Score
  • The Texas Short Film Festival
    San Antonio, Texas
    United States
    January 21, 2023
    Texas Premiere
    Best Dark Drama
  • Houston International Film Festival
    Houston, Texas
    United States
    May 10, 2023
    Remi Award Winner for Long Shorts
  • The Santa Fe Film Festival
    Santa Fe, NM
    United States
    March 3, 2023
    Best Short Story
  • Caribbean Tales International Film Festival
    Toronto, Ontario
    Canada
    September 26, 2023
    Canadian Premiere
    Opening Film, Best Cinematography
  • The Topanga Film Festival
    Topanga Canyon, California
    United States
    October 8, 2023
    Best Topanga Short
Director Biography - Jack Evans

Jack Evans is a new director of journalistic and anthropological backgrounds. A diversity of working pursuits has taken him from his homelands of Texas and Tennessee to careers in rural East Africa, Scotland and Central America. As a screenwriter, he has authored scripts with the likes of Cormac McCarthy and Cole Hauser and is currently involved in the production of a feature film and two major limited series. The short film 'Eden River' is his first effort of directing and producing. Jack is 27 years old, and lives between Santa Fe and Mexico City.

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Director Statement

Eden River was an expedition -- our team spent months in Belize following up the legends of a deceased journalist's writing, which led us to long conversations with turtle hunters, medicine women, ritual musicians and subsistence fishermen -- exactly the walks of life depicted in our short. Our method of allowing their realities to permeate our storytelling worked, all the more because of the remoteness of our setting and the cinematic attention our project brought to a little-remembered era of Caribbean history.

When I was young, films showed me the world and validated a sense of rapture of being alive. It is my hope to make that contribution onwards with this research-driven immersion into the fascinating spiritualities of Caribbean hunters on the chaotically decolonizing frontiers of the 1960's.

Eden River is a prequel to a grander story, coming soon...