The Strait Guys (2022)

World premiere: É tudo Verdade (It’s All True), Brazil, April 2022

N. American premiere: North x North Festival & Summit, USA, April 2022 (with director Rick Minnich)

European Premiere: Berlin, June 2nd, 19:30, Babylon Berlin (with film team)

Oceania premiere: Doc Edge, New Zealand, June 2022

West Coast premiere: Green Film Festival of San Francisco, USA, September 2022 (with director Rick Minnich)

Dutch premiere: International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam IDFA, The Netherlands, November 2022 (with director Rick Minnich)

German festival premiere: Ökofilmtour Brandenburg, April 2023 (with director Rick Minnich)

Eastern European premiere: Moldox International Documentary Film Festival for Social Change, Moldova, June 2023 (with director Rick Minnich)

East Coast premiere: Global Peace Film Festival, Orlando, Florida, September 2023

The Netherlands: Beholders Documentary Dialogues, October 2023 (with director Rick Minnich)

Worldwide: Fort Ross Dialogue (online), November 30, 2023

Theatrical Release Germany

European Premiere: Berlin, June 2, 2022, 19:30, Babylon Berlin (with film team)

Additional screenings with the film team:

Berlin
June 3rd, 19:00 Moviemento
June 8th, 20:30 Krokodil

Karlsruhe
June 5th, 13:00 Schauburg

Tübingen
June 5th, 19:00 Arsenal

Joachimsthal
September 16th, 19:30 Kulturhaus Heidekrug 2.0

Potsdam-Babelsberg
September 18th, 10:30 Thalia

Leipzig
April 16, 2023, 17.00 Kinobar Prager Frühling

Fürstenberg/Havel
April 21, 2023, 19.00 Kulturgasthof “Alte Reederei”

Other cities

Television Broadcasts:

Canada: Knowledge Network, Nov. 29, 2022
Germany: MDR, April 16, 2023 + January 28, 2024

Endorsements:

• “What distinguishes a visionary from a dreamer?  The Strait Guys poses that question in a surprising documentary about a 76-year-old Czech mining engineer, and his fast-talking protege as they pursue their mission to connect Russia and the United States by building a 100 kilometer train tunnel beneath the Bering Strait.  At a time when Russia and the U.S. are more hostile to each other since the Cuban Missile Crisis, and climate change threatens the entire globe, and particularly the Artic, this film could not be more timely.” – Mark Jonathan Harris, three-time Oscar-winning director (“Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories from the Kindertransport”, “The Long Way Home”)

• “An extradionary film. Visionary, inspirational and filled with hope for a more connected world.” – Lynne Cox, world record-holding endurance swimmer who swam across the Bering Strait from the US to the USSR in 1987
• “Wavering on the precipice between adoration and satire, THE STRAIT GUYS neatly indulges the subject matter of outlandish but ultimately inevitable human ambition.” – Dennis Schmitt, polar explorer
• “When most people visualize a messenger of peace, they likely picture a white dove. Almost never do they imagine an opportunity for peace carried forward by a cantankerous, chain-smoking engineer obsessed with connecting the world through a transnational rail project. The Strait Guys fit beautifully within the Global Peace Film Festival programming mission to spread models of peace especially because the film provided a portrait of peacemaking embodied by the most unlikely messenger. The film reminds each of us to reach for every chance to connect people to one another and to share our world together.” – Kelly DeVine, Artistic Director, Global Peace Film Festival
• “An intriguing and visually stunning film that blends geopolitics, economics, and technology but keeps people at the center of its story. The Strait Guys follows one man’s dream of a tunnel under the Bering Strait, while also introducing a wide range of other compelling figures, from boosters and small-town majors to Kremlin operatives and local Alaskan communities. The film shows at once the attraction of thinking big and the costs of doing so. An emotionally compelling achievement.” – Paul W. Werth, Professor, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
• Villa Aurora presented “The Strait Guys” at a sold-out event. The film engaged the audience from the start, leading to a lively discussion with the filmmaker about the protagonists’ pursuit of “peace, progress, and prosperity”, the cost to the individuals, and the necessity of attempting the impossible to further an exchange between nations. – Dr. Claudia Gordon, Director Villa Aurora and Thomas Mann House, Pacific Palisades, California
• “I highly recommend reaching out to Rick if you have any interest to bring the real documentary filmmaking world to your classroom students.” – Brian Sisselman, Adjunct Professor School of Film and Television, Loyola Marymount University
• We all need to know one another and see each other as friends and co-inhabitants of this beautiful planet, not as enemies. What a massive, ambitious and visionary project. We need a transformation in discovering we are all brothers and sisters! A train could help bring the people of the US and Russia and the world closer together, but somehow we need to pressure our governments. This train could help facilitate communication, travel, visits and trade. – David Hartsough, co-founder of World Beyond War and author of WAGING PEACE: Global Adventures of a Lifelong Activist

Interviews with Rick:

• Renegade, Inc. – interview with Rick and with Scott Spencer, Chief Project Advisor of the InterContinental Railway
• Global Peace Film Festival – interview with Rick
• “Spontaneous Moments of Conversation” with Leon Logothetis on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify
• RNZ Radio New Zealand – interview with Rick
• Met Film School – interview with documentary tutor Rick Minnich

Film reviews:

English

• Film Threat (8 of 10) – “The Strait Guys is full of thrills and surprises, even though you know the ending without ever having heard this story before.”

German

• Süddeutsche Zeitung
• Vorwärts – “Megaprojekt für Frieden am Ende der Welt”
• Cinema.de
• Kino-Zeit.de – “Ein bloßer Traum oder ein reales Menschheitsprojekt?” (“A mere dream or a project for humanity?”)
• Biograph.de
• Tag24.de – “… ein menschliches Werk voller Herzblut.” (“… a human work full of heart and soul.”)
• Filmstarts.de
• Berlin.de

Portuguese

• Esquina da cultura – “An intense and touching film about dreams.”

Would your organization like to host a virtual or in-person event with “The Strait Guys”? Then please complete this screening request form. Our team will get back to you with a quote within a few days.

If you would like to make a tax-deductible donation to our completion fund, you can do so here. A receipt will be issued immediately per email.

If you do not need a tax-deduction, then please support the filmmakers directly. 100% of your donation will go directly to the filmmakers to help us complete and distribute “The Strait Guys”.

Thank you for your support!