Jon Batiste to Narrate and Executive Produce Giant Screen Documentary 'American Amazon'

Eight-time Grammy winner Jon Batiste will narrate, appear on screen in, and executive produce American Amazon, a giant screen documentary exploring the vast wetlands spanning Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, and the Carolinas. MacGillivray Freeman Films — recognised as the world's leading independent producer and distributor of giant screen films — announced the project on Thursday (Deadline).

The film is scheduled to premiere on 13 November in select IMAX and giant screen theatres and museums, before reaching a wider television audience as a two-part miniseries on PBS' Nature in early 2027 (Deadline). Shot over four years, American Amazon is marketed as an epic exploration of North America's hidden wilderness — a wetland network that few people realise sits across the American South.

Behind the camera, Eric Bendick of Grizzly Creek Films wrote, directed, and co-produced the documentary, with Thomas Winston, also of Grizzly Creek, serving as co-producer. Fred Kaufman is executive producer of PBS' Nature, which partnered on the project alongside Grizzly Creek Films and The WNET Group (Deadline).

Batiste brings serious hardware to the venture. Beyond his eight Grammys, he holds an Oscar, a BAFTA, and a Golden Globe (Deadline). He is also composing the score for Amazon MGM's upcoming The Thomas Crown Affair, starring Michael B. Jordan, which was teased at CinemaCon in April (Deadline). His previous documentary turn, American Symphony, was acquired by Netflix and the Obamas' Higher Ground production company in 2023 (The Hollywood Reporter).

For MacGillivray Freeman Films, American Amazon continues a half-century of large-format filmmaking. The company, which marks 50 years since its landmark film To Fly! helped launch the giant screen industry, also recently released Cities of the Future and announced Epic Earth, an app for Apple Vision Pro (macgillivrayfreeman.com). The Giant Screen Cinema Association voted the company's Superhuman Body the Best Film For Lifelong Learning (macgillivrayfreeman.com).

For audiences, the November premiere offers a rare combination: a musician of Batiste's calibre lending voice and presence to a landscape most Americans have never seen, on screens built to make that landscape feel immersive. The two-part PBS run in early 2027 then brings the same material to living rooms — a familiar broadcast pipeline for Nature, which has been the platform's flagship wildlife series for decades.