A project by Stuart Bowditch and Ruth Philo with the people and communities along the River Stour, which flows through Cambridgeshire, Suffolk and Essex.

Building on their previous collaboration To The Lighthouse, a film about the decommissioned Orford Ness Lighthouse, sound recordist Stuart Bowditch and painter Ruth Philo gained funding from Arts Council England and Dedham Vale AONB to work on their next film, The River Runs Through Us.

Ignoring the notion of the river as a boundary, in this age where increasingly borders and divisions are drawn, the artists  discovered a deeper connectedness and the primitive co-dependency that exists between people and water. 

The artists hosted a series of walks-and-talks and a swim through the Stour Valley during the summer of 2017 with local experts on the river's connections with ecology, literature, wildlife, writers and artists.

The project culminated with a premiere screening in June 2018 together with an installation and exhibition at The Boat House Gallery (National Trust) at Flatford, from July to August 2018. The film then toured along the river being screened at pubs and galleries.  Following this there have been further screenings at Yantai Art Museum, China, Sluice:Berlin and the upcoming Venice Biennale, part of the collateral event, Alive in the Universe. 

This project is the seed event for the inaugural year of the River Stour Festival that takes place in 2018 and will continue in to 2019. 

Funded by Arts Council England and AONB Dedham Vale