It’s About More Than The Fish- California Trout’s Fish, Water, People- Flow State Film Festival Connects Us To Water

California Trout’s Fish, Water, People Film Festival was such a joy to watch! The films ranged from big conservation stories to the intimate slices of life about the ways water changes us and I left feeling inspired to tell the stories I have about water in LA.

This is the second annual Fish, Water, People Film Festival which “explores the Flow State, and the powerful connection between Californians and our waterways. Through a curated collection of short films, we will discover how flowing water draws us in, grounds us, challenges us, and reminds us what we're fighting to protect.”

The tour was held in several cities in California with one date left in San Diego on June 17th! 

You’ll see film about Bishop Lake, tales about friendship and fishing in the Sierras, tender moments of caregiving for people and water, rad footage of surf fishing in San Fransisco, and inspiring stories of what can be changed for the better when a group of people come together to protect water (and the fish… and subsequently everything else in the ecosystem)

My personal favorites were Wild Pathways by Isabela Zawistowska that followed two CalTrout Ambassadors (and talented musicians) as they explore the Bishop Lake area to fly fish in between music gigs. The film intercuts their adventures with the history of what Los Angeles did to this area when it took the water and ways LADWP has had to start to give some back just in 2006. The film features Andrea Jones of California Audubon talking about the birds that returned to this area as soon as the water returned and what hope there might be for the future.

The short documentary, The Edge of the Cast by Fish the West Films, follows George Revel, a guide and fly fishing shop owner in San Francisco, as he shows a visiting angler the ropes of surf fishing for Stripers (Striped bass). The footage of the surf and wild beaches was exhilerating to watch but the deeper message of the film is true to this projects heart- you don’t have to leave your city to do outdoorsy things! George emphasized that he got into surf fly fishing when he started his business and couldn’t get away for longer trips. Fishing the coast right there in San Fransisco allows people to connect to wild places right there in the city and that is a message that LAINAD is all about!

And there was a special look at upcoming film The Last Barrier by Matthew Benton, (who also made the incredibly inspiring film Fish For The Future about post fire fish rescue in Topanga last year). This year's film follows an activist for the Alameda Creek who had worked for thirty years to remove barriers to trout and salmon in the urbanized creek in the San Fransisco Bay area. Just like “Fish For The Future” made me cry, and this film got some tears too when the footage of the water slowly creeping back into the creek after the removal was playing and shortly after the barrier removal, Salmon had already shown up! When I think of how much we have changed in the past 100 years it can feel overwhelming, but films like this one show us that we can undo some of the damage and the wildlife is there and waiting to return to their homelands again.

But this festival is about more than the fish! There were films about connecting youth to the ocean and another about a woman’s life long relationship with rafting and getting back out on the water at 55. They were examples of how this film festival was about more than trout or fishing, they inspired me to think about what kind of stories I would want to tell about my journey of connecting to water here in LA.

Southern California was sadly very under represented in this year’s festival but that is because there was not that many entries from this region. It makes me think about the kinds of stories that do get told about Southern California water and what different stories could we be telling.

Yes Southern California takes a lot of water from up North (and the Colorado River) but we have our own water too and we need to flip the script about SoCal being waterless. Lets move beyond the shadow of films like Chinatwon! I encourage anyone reading this in Southern California to think about telling the story about your relationship with a local creek, your fly fishing on one of our urban rivers, and restoration of our coastlines. Let’s tell the stories of sea turtles in the San Gabriel, native trout in the Arroyo Seco, and bats under our bridges along the LA River. What story about water in Los Angeles and Southern California do you want to see told?

I'm so thankful for the invitation and comp ticket to attend this years film festival and for the inspiration the films gave me. There is just one more chance to see the festival this year on June 17th in San Diego at the Digital Gym Cinema. Doors open at 6 pm and the films start screening at 6:30pm. Check out more details here- https://caltrout.org/event/fish-water-people-film-festival-flow-state-san-diego-screening/