FHFF Double Feature – “Eastern Rises” and “Red Gold”

Tuesday Night Films at the Grange – Next week, April 1, Friday Harbor Film Festival presents a double feature:

Eastern Rises, (48 minutes) is an avant-garde style documentary that follows a courageous band of fly fishermen who risk life and limb in one of the last wild places on earth – the remote Kamchatka Peninsula of the Russian Far East.

These truly obsessed, halfway insane fishermen brave Cold War helicopters, grizzlies, massive mosquitoes, and even Bigfoot in search of rainbow trout, salmon and the ultimate fish story. The film’s cynical narration pulls viewers along on this humorous and intriguing tale, featuring superb cinematography, excellent storytelling, and inspirational angling.

Red Gold, (54 minutes) explores one of the biggest land use controversies Alaska has ever faced. Several mining companies have proposed the world’s largest open pit gold and copper mine in the state’s Bristol Bay region, at the headwaters of the two rivers providing the two most prolific sockeye salmon runs left in the world.

In documenting the battle between the area’s fishing communities and the mining companies, the film brings the accident-plagued history of hard rock mining in Alaska to the forefront of public consciousness, and gives all sides of the controversy an opportunity to present their points of view.

7:00 PM, April 1st at the Grange

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