Beneath the Oars Premieres at The River Summit & Festival
Mark Barrow of Beneath British Waters has been a part of the River Summit family since last year, when he created a film especially for the event. But Beneath the Oars, his new film made exclusively for the River Summit and Festival 2026, feels like a different kind of project entirely.
This time, Mark went underwater in Henley itself.
Shot on the main Thames at Henley, on the stunning St Patrick's Stream where minnows were caught in full breeding colours, and along the River Loddon, Beneath the Oars tells the story of a river system that most people standing on the famous Henley bank have never seen. The hidden tributaries that feed the Greater Thames, the life that persists despite pollution and degradation, the extraordinary underwater world that exists just beneath the surface of one of the most iconic stretches of water in the world.
“I’m hoping that after they’ve watched it, it will give them that wow factor of — well, I’ve spent so many years on this river and had no idea of the life that’s underneath. If it gives them such an important message that it will inspire them to go the extra mile and to walk away with that sense of a newborn fire in the belly - then I’ll have done my job.”
The film also features an interview with Imogen Grant, Olympic gold medallist rower, connecting Henley's world-famous rowing heritage with the river that makes it all possible. Making it was harder than Mark expected. Boat traffic on the Henley reach, the complexity of the edit and the sheer ambition of getting it right tested him throughout, but the result is something he is genuinely proud of and something Henley audiences in particular will find impossible to forget.
Beneath the Oars will be shown at the River Summit and Festival on 4th September in Henley Town Hall and again at the Rivers of Film Festival from 7pm the same evening.