GLADESMEN is an award-winning documentary about the federal government's ban on Florida's iconic airboats in much of the Everglades. The measure is part of the world's largest and most expensive effort to repair a damaged ecosystem, a vast river of sawgrass and cypress swamps that has been ravaged by more than a century of development, pollution, and other environmental degradation.

The outcome will determine the future of the region's water supply and its ability to withstand rising sea levels. It may also lead to the demise of the Gladesmen, who for more than a century have hunted alligators and gigged frogs, sought peace on isolated tree islands, and taken refuge from the ever-increasing development that has carved up the Everglades.

87 minutes. DVD includes scene selection and SDH captions for the deaf and hard-of-hearing.

Trailer: https://vimeo.com/266181236

Directed by David Abel

"Gladesmen presents the conflicted flashpoint of deeply contested ecologies around the culture wars over access to Florida's Everglades in the era of climate change and sea level rise." Bernard L. Herman, Professor of American Studies, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill