EARLIER this week Fisho attended the Sydney screening of the 9th annual RISE Fly Fishing Film Festival at the historic Chauvel Cinema on Oxford St.
While the event wasn’t sold out, Sydney’s fly fishing fraternity were out in force to view the current crop of hot fly fishing films from around the world.
Master of ceremonies for the night was young American film maker RC Cone. Cone recently emerged in the fly fishing film genre with Breathe, a film about how people escape their everyday work lives by fly fishing.
At RISE 2014, Cone was following up Breathe with a short from his latest production, Tributaries, a film that explores the contrasting experiences of three fly fishing guides from different parts of the world. See trailer at: https://vimeo.com/83659978
The night opened with the screening of the short Alaska – La Frontera Norte, an entertaining film that follows an expedition of a group of fly fishing friends as they venture into the wilds of Alaska to fish and explore a largely untouched river system. Beautifully shot and fast paced, this film was one of the highlights of the night.
Blood Knot was the next film screened. This quirky entertaining film features twin Virginian brothers and fly fishing fanatics Brian and Colby who, when they’re not running a fly shop, are spending as much time as possible throwing flies at trout or huge carp. A fun feel-good film that shows fly fishing is as much about the people involved as the places they come from and the fish they pursue. See trailer HERE.
Stripstrike Fraser Island – Black Torpedoes was, as its title suggests, an Australian production shot at the Queensland sport fishing paradise of Hervey Bay/Fraser Island. This short film features a couple of Hervey Bay based fly fishing guides, including Andrew Chorley of Hervey Bay Fly and Sport Fishing who regular appears in fishing news snippets on the Fisho site. This film showcases the amazing fishing available to sport fishers who visit the region to target marlin, mackerel, tuna, golden trevally and more. The excitement of this style of fishing is captured in Stripstrike, especially in the sequences of cruising longtail tuna – “black torpedoes” – being sight cast to as they travel the shallow crystal clear waters surrounding Fraser Island. See trailer HERE.
Anyone who’s a fan of Nick Reygaert’s fly fishing films will know what they’re in store for from his latest feature – Backcountry North Island. While in a similar slow flowing style to other Reygaert productions, Backcountry is another visual feast with its stunning aerial and slow motion footage done justice on the big screen and demonstrating how much this film maker has honed his craft in the last decade. The film centres around fly fishers who escape to the wilds of New Zealand’s North Island and fly fish tiny creeks that receive little angling pressure.
Image from Nick Reygaert’s Backcountry North Island.
While the endless stunning images of enormous brown and rainbow trout are enough to make a fly fishing starved editor punchdrunk, this is “fishporn” at its very best. Backcountry North Island is an inspiring film that is sure to make you wish you were the one on the screen casting a dry fly at a trophy sized trout somewhere in New Zealand. Highly recommended.
The RISE Fly Fishing Festival is currently touring the country – check dates HERE.
