Tarpon

Fishing Feats

December 1951 •English

With Pete Smith providing dry off-screen commentary, we watch some serious fishing: a marlin caught near Catalina, a hammerhead shark caught then wrestled in a small rowboat near Baja, the largest (721 pounds) great white shark caught to date in California waters, Chinook Indians catching salmon at Celilo Falls in Oregon - each with his designated place on the river where his ancestors stood, and, last, a crew on a boat off Mexico hoisting and hurling tuna using unbarbed hooks (baited only with a feather) as fast as they can as long as the school is there - backbreaking work - but a $25,000 catch.

Nanook of the North

June 1922 •English

This pioneering documentary film depicts the lives of the indigenous Inuit people of Canada's northern Quebec region. Although the production contains some fictional elements, it vividly shows how its resourceful subjects survive in such a harsh climate, revealing how they construct their igloo homes and find food by hunting and fishing. The film also captures the beautiful, if unforgiving, frozen landscape of the Great White North, far removed from conventional civilization.

Elogio ao ½

January 2006 •Portuguese

Oceans of Crime

February 2018 •English

Go inside a fascinating and disturbing crime story, set in one of the most lawless places on earth: our oceans, where perpetrators traffic in an illegal product, and front-line workers are modern day slaves. It's part of a multi-billion dollar outlaw industry funded by the global appetite for salmon, tuna, and other seafood, though few are aware of the human and environmental wreckage left by illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing.

Una corriente salvaje

October 2018 •Spanish

Chilo and Omar seem to be the only two men on earth. They live on a solitary beach and their constant activity is fishing to survive. Their friendship, surrounded by sensuality, becomes a kind of a love story. Through their conversations and their relationship, the film explores and portraits human condition.

Harro & Big Barra

January 1997 •English

In Harro & Big Barra, lure fishing legend Rob Harrison takes viewers on travels into remote Arnhemland in pursuit of big barramundi. ‘Harro’ shares his fond knowledge of these finned icons, and puts you right into the picture to show you how to come to grips with those fish of a lifetime.

F.I.S.H.I.N.G

August 2012 •Dutch

One million Dutchmen (out of 16 million) play soccer. Almost two million fish at least once a year. Fishing might be the most remarkable sport in the world. The documentary V.I.S.S.E.N (FISHING) dives into the world of Dutch fish and fishermen. Above and under water, on the IJ, at the coast, on the North Sea, in the cities, in the polder and on and by lakes and rivers. The film is a personal, filmic search for the “primordial fisher” in mankind and a portrait of the Netherlands by and on the water. V.I.S.S.E.N is also about what moves the fishermen. Who are the people that fish? Is fishing a hobby, a sport, an escape or a primordial instinct one cannot repress? What goes through your mind when you fish, when you catch something, or when you do not catch anything. And: what's it like for the fish, getting hooked?

Fish Tales

March 1954 •English

In this short film, champion fisherman Ernie St. Claire tries to catch a large salmon in Oregon's Rogue River.

Fishing in Tunisia

January 2023 •Spanish

The Spanish fishing team is one of the best in the world and the rest of the teams know it. In the last three years they have not been off the podium and in the last World Championship they hope to achieve the same. This documentary reviews the adventure of the Spanish fishing team during the XXXVIII Men's World Sea-Coast Championship in Tunisia and everything that being an elite fisherman entails.

The Lonely Dorymen

April 1968 •English

For more than four centuries, young Portuguese fishermen have followed their fathers to the Grand Banks of Newfoundland and in recent years to Greenland’s banks to fish the cold waters for cod. Intrepid men, set off for the Banks on schooners under full sail, then adrift in a flat-bottomed dory, they bait the hundred of hooks of their long-line, oblivious to fog, rain and Arctic wind, they labour 18 hours a day and haul up cod by the score.

Skinningrove

January 2013 •English

A photographer shares unpublished images chronicling time spent among the 'fiercely independent' residents of a remote English fishing village.

Sword Fishing

October 1939 •English

A group of fishermen, including Howard Hill, "the world's greatest archer," go in search of marlin off the California coast. With a fishing line attached to his arrow, Hill plans to spear the fish, which would then be brought aboard the boat by rod and reel.

Greenland, 1914

December 1914 •English

Danish documentary following different locations and situations in Greenland anno 1914. It comes around settlements, hunters, steamboats, umiaks, a kayak race, and a football match. Photographed by W. Thalbitzer.

Greenland, 1932

December 1932 •English

Danish documentary filmed in Greenland. Shows a lot of Greenlanders, skiing, hunting for birds, seals and whales, and ice fishing. Filmed by Dr. Leif Folke.

Fishing in Greenland

December 1932 •English

Danish documentary that follows fishermen in Greenland, from the time when fishing got industrialized. The filmcrew also captures ships fighting the thick ice, meet some locals and some hunters. Also, look out for a 'cameo' by the legendary Danish polar explorer Knud Rasmussen, who played a big part in exploring Greenland. He died short after in 1933 from food poisoning. Produced by H.B. Film.

Canoeman's Holiday

September 1956 •English

The owners of the Loon Bay Lodge in St. Stephen, New Brunswick, Canada usually plan fishing and rafting trips for their guests. In this short they take such a trip themselves down the St. Croix River, which forms the southern end of the international boundary between New Brunswick and the state of Maine.

Of Fish and Foe

April 2018 •English

The Pullars are the last family using traditional methods to fish for wild Atlantic salmon off the coast of Scotland. When these include killing seals, the salmon’s natural predators, conflict erupts. Animal activist groups Sea Shepherd and Hunt Saboteurs oppose the Pullars at every turn, despite the legality of the fishermen’s actions and the consequences to their livelihood. Challenging preconceptions, this ambiguous doc puts modern environmentalism under the microscope.

Fish: Farming in Troubled Waters

February 2014 •English

Fish are an important part of the ecosystem and the human diet. Unfortunately, overfishing has depleted many fish stocks, and the proposed solution — fish farming — is creating far more problems than it solves. Not only are fish farms polluting the aquatic environment and spreading disease to wild fish, farmed fish are also an inferior food source, in part by providing fewer healthy nutrients; and in part by containing more toxins, which readily accumulate in fat. Farmed Salmon = Most Toxic Food in the World Salmon is perhaps the most prominent example of how fish farming has led us astray. Food testing reveals farmed salmon is one of the most toxic foods in the world, having more in common with junk food than health food.1 Studies highlighting the seriousness of the problem

Seadrift

January 2019 •English

On August 3rd, 1979, a Vietnamese refugee shoots and kills a white crab fisherman at the town docks in Seadrift, TX. What began as a fishing dispute erupts in violence and ignites a resurgence of the KKK and open hostilities against the Vietnamese along the Gulf Coast. Set during the early days of Vietnamese refugee arrival, “Seadrift” examines the circumstances that led up to the shooting, its tumultuous aftermath, and the unexpected consequences that continue to reverberate today.

Key West: Bohemia in the Tropics

November 2010 •English

Engaging and light-hearted story of how a radical New Deal economic experiment during the Great Depression created an image of Key West in the popular culture and how that image became the island’s destiny. The film features interviews with famous contemporary writers, such as Gore Vidal and Russell Banks, and newly uncovered archival photos and footage, including rare Hemingway home movies.