Some of the best documentary films about rivers and streams are never seen by a major audience.  Maybe they are screened at an independent film festival, or at a conservation-related event.  Even after rave reviews, they may shelved, often never to be viewed again.  Here’s a short list of some interesting river films you may want to download or stream to your personal computer, tablet or smart phone.  In some cases only the trailer is available, and you may need to contact the filmmaker for a copy.

The Plight of the Pallid Sturgeon – 2013, 59 min.
A review of the life history of the pallid sturgeon, a fish species with an ancestry dating back 80 million years when dinosaurs were walking the shores of the ancient Missouri River.
Full film: http://watch.montanapbs.org/video/2365025510/

Where the Yellowstone Goes – 2012, 88 min.
Where the Yellowstone Goes follows a 30-day drift boat journey down the longest “undammed” river in the lower 48. Intimate portraits of locals in both booming cities and dusty, dwindling towns along the Yellowstone River, illustrate the history and controversies surrounding this enigmatic watershed leading to questions about its future. Connect with colorful characters, get lost in the hypnotic cast of a fly rod, and experience silhouetted moments of fireside stories on this heartfelt river adventure.
Trailer: http://www.wheretheyellowstonegoes.com/
Buy: http://www.troutheads.org/where-the-yellowstone-goes-dvd-or-bluray-p-9.html

Lost Rivers – 2012, 72 min.
(French with English subtitles) Once upon a time, in almost every industrial city, countless rivers flowed. We built houses along their banks. Our roads hugged their curves. And their currents fed our mills and factories. But as cities grew, we polluted rivers so much that they became conduits for deadly waterborne diseases like cholera, which was 19th century’s version of the Black Plague. Our solution two centuries ago was to bury rivers underground and merge them with sewer networks.
Trailer: http://rivieresperdues.radio-canada.ca/en

Valley Maker – 2011, 70 min.
Part documentary, part personal travelogue, Valley Maker follows the travels of filmmaker Sean Kafer as he navigates 1600 miles down the Mississippi River, from Prescott, Wisconsin to New Orleans, in a hand crafted barrel raft.
Trailer: http://seankafer.net/pages/valleymaker.html
Contact the filmmaker: http://www.seankafer.net/pages/contact.html

Return of the River – Still in development
The official ceremony heralding the long-awaited start of dam removal on the Elwha River was held on September 17, 2011. The decommissioning of the two Elwha River dams is both symbolic and meaningful, as salmon will again return to the protected river inside of Olympic National Park.
Trailer: http://www.elwhafilm.com/trailer.htm

Saving America’s Wildest River – 2010, 54 min
In the summer of 2008, George Wolfe, a satirical writer and avid boater decided to paddle the entire 52 miles of the Los Angeles River, from the headwaters in Canoga Park to its mouth in Long Beach. He organized an expedition and, together with a dozen other ragtag locals he changed the course of the river forever. This film tells their incredible story, the story of the embattled waterway, and the story of Los Angeles’ past, present and potential future.
Trailer: http://www.rocktheboatfilm.com/
Buy: http://www.rocktheboatfilm.com/shop

Rivers to the Sea – 2009, 46 min
This documentary looks at the beauty and the pollution of tidal Atlantic rivers. The rivers’ closeness to the sea makes them ideal spawning grounds for many kinds of marine fish that require fresh water to complete some part of their life cycle.
Full film: http://www.online-documentaries.com/documentary/rivers-to-the-sea/

Rediscovering the Yangtze River – 2006, 33 Episodes
This documentary created by China Central Television follows a 1984 documentary film named “The Story of the Yangtze River.” It is China’s first documentary shot entirely in 1080i HDTV. Filming began in 2004 and the first episode aired in July 2006. The series has a total of 33 episodes with a run time of 30 minutes per episode.
Watch all episodes online: http://english.cntv.cn/program/documentary/special/yangtze_river/
Buy: http://www.amazon.com/Rediscovering-Yangtze-River-Lived-Rhythm/dp/B006VA40HC/ref=sr_1_1?s=instant-video&ie=UTF8&qid=1376257480&sr=1-1&keywords=rhythm+of+the+river

Planet Earth Freshwater – 2006, 50 min
Freshwater show us the course taken by rivers and some of the species, Venezuela’s Tepui, where there is a tropical downpour almost every day, the vastness of Angel Falls, the world’s highest free-flowing waterfall, the two-metre long giant salamander, salmon undertake the largest freshwater migration, and are hunted en route by grizzly bears, the Grand Canyon, created over five million years by the Colorado River, Nile cousin ambushing wildebeest as they cross the Mara River, Roseate spoonbills, cichlids, piranhas, river dolphins and swimming crab-eating macaques.
Trailer: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00mrvbp
Buy: http://www.amazon.com/Freshwater-HD/dp/B00321QLS4

Rivers of Destiny – 2003, 25 min
Journey to Planet Earth examines the health of four of the world’s river systems — the Mississippi, the Amazon, the Jordan and the Mekong. The first stop is the small town of Grafton, Illinois, one of the many to suffer devastating damage when the upper Mississippi River flooded its banks in 1993. Journey to Planet Earth shows how massive construction efforts earlier in this century to control the river’s flooding have profoundly affected the entire Mississippi basin.
Trailer: http://www.ovguide.com/tv_episode/journey-to-planet-earth-season-1-episode-1-rivers-of-destiny-407728
Buy: http://www.amazon.com/Journey-Planet-Earth-Destiny-Edition/dp/B008Y0O3JM