Big River Man Martin Strel will swim in Hudson today in an anniversary. “It has been 10 years since he swam down the entire length of the Mississippi River,” said his son Borut Strel.

Tonight at 7:30 pm, his documentary Big River Man will have a special benefit screening with 100% of box office, plus a 50% match from IFC Center, going to director John Maringouin’s surgery fund. Maringouin is the acclaimed director of Big River Man.

Filmmaker Stephen Kijak says, “My friend, celebrated documentarian John Maringouin, thought he was suffering from chronic asthma for nearly a decade.

His insurance company had recently blocked his numerous efforts to get a CAT scan and other advanced diagnostics when his condition worsened. He also has a tumor in his lung which has collapsed. He is in a fighting spirit but is in need of an operation. Being uninsured, he is being forced to go out-of-pocket for the procedure for which he was just quoted a price tag of $214,000. Such is the state of health care in this country. He will not even be able to book the procedure without providing nearly $60,000 for a down payment. Since time is of the essence, that is our immediate goal—to get him the money to at least book the surgery. We may later ask for additional donations for the remaining expenses but for now, this man needs to book an operation. Having seen our creative community rally around projects on Kickstarter, I have faith that we can rally around one of our own, one of the most gifted independent filmmakers (and father of one awesome little dude) that I know, and see to it that he gets the help he needs.”

Copyright © 2012 by Open Water Source