The Films

• Year 2019
• Country USA
• Runtime 4 min
• Director Aaron Peterson

Tom and Max Werkman are Werkman Outfitters and they chase trophy cold water and warm water species on the Grand River including the unique urban fishery of the city’s bustling downtown.

• Year 2019
• Country USA
• Runtime 7 min
• Director Finn Ryan

Filmmaker in Attendance

In 1971, A.B. LeBlanc set a gill net in Pendills Bay on Lake Superior. The Michigan DNR arrested LeBlanc and he was later convicted of fishing commercially without a license and for fishing with an illegal device. This story highlights the treaty challenge and struggle for the Bay Mills Ojibwe community to maintain their identity through treaty reserved rights asserted in the signing of the 1836 treaty with the United States.

• Year 2019
• Country USA
• Runtime 16 min
• Director Torrin Grange

Filmmaker in Attendance

Lake Superior acts as an inland ocean harboring steelhead and salmon, springtime brings a short window in which they occupy pursuable areas for anglers. Record snow in the Upper Peninsula provides a prolonged run and high water as the Peninsula Pursuit team spends every minute possible chasing these illusive creatures. Superior Steel 1 was the beginning of what will be a lifetime pursuit of chasing steelhead on “Gitchi Gumi” (Lake Superior).

• Year 2019
• Country USA
• Runtime 5 min
• Director Liam Kaiser

Filmmaker in Attendance

Fishtown is the story is about commercial fishing on the Great Lakes and a small family that’s operated a business for five generations.

• Year 2019
• Country USA
• Runtime 13 min
• Director Colin Scott

Movements is the symphonic saga – in four parts (Rainbow, Steelhead, Musky, Striper) – of three Alaska fishing guides who road trip their way home in a 2003 Dodge Caravan (best known as ‘Van-a White’) from AK to NYC. From an Edenic paradise to a modern-day Gomorrah in a single month – arriving in Time Square on Halloween night – these four MOVEMENTS make our original symphony “Agartha.”

• Year 2019
• Country USA
• Runtime 8 min
• Director Finn Ryan

Filmmaker in Attendance

In 1989, a small group of athletes set out on a Healing and Solidarity run to bring peace and healing to the communities impacted by conflicts over recently affirmed Ojibwe treaty rights to spear fish in the ceded territories around the central Great Lakes. The run began as a reaction to a specific issue, but evolved to address challenges faced by communities along its route.

• Year 2018
• Country USA
• Runtime 8 min
• Director Ryan Peterson

A woman quits her mid-career job as a scientist to become a commercial fisherman. A humorous story of her unlikely mentorship within a gang of young party dudes. Set in the world’s biggest, rowdiest salmon fishery of Bristol Bay, Alaska.

• Year 2019
• Country USA
• Runtime 26 min
• Director Colin Arisman & Connor Gallagher

“Rock-Paper-Fish” takes audiences deep into the rainforest of Southeast Alaska where life is inseparable from the age-old rhythms of the Chilkat River. Every year, all five species of salmon return to the Chilkat, drawing the world’s largest gathering of bald eagles, insatiable grizzly bears, and fascinated tourists. The salmon also define life for two communities: The ancient Tlingit village of Klukwan, and a scrappy commercial fishing town, Haines.