The Bend in the River

Saturday 27th of June 5:00pm

ROB MOSS | USA | 2025 | 82"

Following and filming friends for nearly fifty-years. THE BEND IN THE RIVER is an exploration of the inexorable flow of aging and the unfinished project of living.

The Bend in the River chronicles five close friends over nearly fifty years. Starting in 1978, director Robb Moss documents his friend’s outdoor rent-free life during one clothing-optional rafting trip through the Grand Canyon. In 2003, he filmed his friends again coming to terms with their transition from being young and carefree to responsible and middle-aged. Now, in 2025, Moss finds his friends in their 70s grappling with the choices they’ve made as individuals and as a generation. The film interweaves moments from the distant past with those of the recent present, taking viewers back-and-forth through time and inviting personal reflections on the inexorable flow of aging and the unfinished project of living.

“As the director/cinematographer, I like the rigor of seeing the endless possibilities of any given moment. What am I looking at? How should I film it? What is happening right now? At the end of a day of shooting, I am often exhausted and sometimes exhilarated. It is the way that I know how to see things that ring true, whose meanings can arise from the material itself, and are then complicated through editing. Gathering the pieces over time, the story of THE BEND IN THE RIVER, was collected in pieces over decades. Somehow, I had the patience to keep gathering, and then had the great good fortune of working with an amazing editor (Jeff Malmberg) who kept the flame of the film burning over the 2-3 years we worked together. There was a moment in the edit room when Jeff cut from Barry and Deborah telling the story of their third child’s conception, to this child 20 years in the future as a young woman rowing Barry down a river. I saw this cut, and how it mirrored my own relationship with my children: that every moment with them as babies seemed to last forever and then you blink and twenty years have passed. Seeing this cut took my breath away and I thought: maybe we can make this movie.”

Rob Moss