Lost Rivers is a documentary film by Caroline Baclé retracing lost urban rivers in cities around the world. In the 19^th century, these waterways had grown so polluted, they were hidden underground in sewers to protect the population from diseases like cholera. Now visionary urban thinkers, activists and artists from around the world are seeking to release these rivers from their captivity and ‘daylight’ them above ground.

Gowanus Creek, now better known as the Gowanus Canal, was our own Lost River. After the movie, Eymund Diegel will show some historic maps and answer questions about neighborhood buried stream research.

He has been using “digital dowsing” to find the Gowanus Ghost Streams and a crack team of CSI (Creek Scene Investigation) child detectives to uncover the mystery of why your basement floods.

Eymund Diegel is an urban planner and hydrologist, also known as the Old Man of the Gowanus, due to his years of exploration and research along the banks of the canal. He is a major curatorial contributor to Proteus Gowanus’ Hall of Gowanus. 

CSI checking for sounds of imprisoned Vechtes Brook through sewer grate at 2nd St and PPW.