Land of Little Rivers

Sharing its title and subject matter with the 1999 photography book of the same name by Austin McK. Francis, filmmaker Aaron Weisblatt's feature (hosted and narrated by executive producer Bruce Concers) looks at the community and culture of fly fishing in the Catskill Mountains of New York state (especially on the Upper and Lower Delaware Rivers). Much fishing lore and technical tackle minutiae are going to be of interest only to hardcore angler-philes, but the character studies of river guides and bait-shop mavens give the material added appeal. There's Rachel Finn, a Harvard fine-arts graduate now inducting women into the sport; there are latter-day "hippie" Rob Lewis and his nonstop comedic patter; there's Mike Osterhout, whose sideline includes a deconsecrated church he fashioned into an avant-garde performance space/gallery ("The Church of the Little Green Man"); there's Marty Yi, who turned to fishing to heal after his traumatic military-service experiences. Yes, it is confirmed that fly fishing underwent a boost in discipleship thanks to the Robert Redford pastoral 1992 film of the Norman Maclean novel "A River Runs Through It"), but these rod-and-reel folk claim that by monitoring the rivers carefully and working with foresters to tag and keep track of migrating trout, they contribute measurably to the conservation of the eco-system. It is also heavily emphasized that all the fish shown taken from the river here (including underwater sequences) were snared on a catch-and-release basis, no harm done (except to the fish's pride). The disc makes a good haul for outdoor collections, as well as regional New York/Atlantic coast shelves. Buyers should be aware of some salty language among the anglers. (C. Cassady)