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Fish War film image; black and white photograph of ships on ocean

Fish War

Insights

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International Premiere

This deep dive into the contentious history of fishing management in Washington State proves richly rewarding. It’s a compelling film that opens up important conversations around Indigenous treaty rights, the extent and limitations of federal and state jurisdiction, colonial racism and hypocrisy, activism, cooperation, and conservation, to name just a few.

The film finds its centre in the Boldt decision of 1974, a pivotal legal hearing in which a Nixon-appointed judge decreed that treaty rights granted local Native American bands — including the Makah, Quinault, Skokomish, and the Nisqually — 50% of the catch, up from the 2% they had been permitted previously. The ruling was transformative economically, but also politically, and Washington State spent the next decade attempting to have it overturned.

Fish War is buoyed by an abundance of colourful archival footage and lively interviews with many of the leading figures in the fight, and cleverly threads the difficult needle of the ongoing crisis confronting all of us who care about the salmon: the bands were catching more fish at 2% of the yield in 1970 than at today’s 50% allocation.

 

Oct 2 & 4: Q&A with directors Charles Atkinson, Jeff Ostenson & Skylar Wagner and producers Kari Neumeyer & Ed Johnstone

 

Media Partner

Community Partner

Directors
Featuring

Willie Frank III, Russell Hepfer, Ramona Bennett, Lisa Wilson

Credits
Country of Origin

USA

Year

2024

Language

English

Links
Content Warning

Coarse language

PG

Open to youth at SFU Woodwards

19+

At Fifth Avenue

79 min
Documentary Human Rights & Social Justice Indigenous Cinema Q&As at VIFF
North Forty Productions, Northwest Treaty Tribes Media

Book Tickets

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Credits & Director

Executive Producer

Ed Johnstone, Justin Parker

Producer

Kari Neumeyer, Jeff Ostenson, Charles Atkinson, Tiffany Royal

Cinematography

Charles Atkinson

Editor

Skylar Wagner

Original Music

Black Belt Eagle Scout

Jeff Ostenson headshot; Fish War director

Jeff Ostenson

After being a mental health therapist and working with his family’s fruit packing and shipping business, Jeff Ostenson found his way to filmmaking in 2006. Since then, he has primarily focused on the project management and business end of making films, ensuring that every project delivers on time, on budget, and in a way that the client and production team enjoy, and that the created media exceeds the project goals. Over his 17+ year career in film, he has continually engaged deeper in story development and driven each member of North Forty’s creative team further to hone their craft. To date, he has directed and produced hundreds of short films, most about forest health or salmon restoration, including 11 short films in partnership with Northwest Treaty Tribes Media.

Charles Atkinson headshot; Fish War director

Charles Atkinson

Charles Atkinson is a filmmaker out of the Pacific Northwest. He studied filmmaking at Biola University, and after 6 years in Los Angeles, he couldn’t resist the call home – back to the snow and the heat of central Washington. Atkinson’s favourite thing to do is connect audiences with new ideas using filmmaking. He spends most of his time focused on the visual language of projects and believes that every film he works on can deliver a powerful visual story. Atkinson has shot hundreds of short films and several feature-length documentaries in his 13-year career.

Skylar Wagner headshot; Fish War director

Skylar Wagner

After graduating in 2010 with a cinema and media arts degree from Biola University, Skylar Wagner entered a 12-year career as a reality TV editor. He worked on a wide variety of dance competition, travel, nature, and docu-drama shows for national cable broadcast and was the lead and finishing editor on many of those. During that time, Wagner collaborated with North Forty Productions on many projects, including a regional Emmy-nominated doc short and a feature-length documentary. In the past year, he took a VP of Post position with North Forty and serves as lead editor on all of their projects.

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