Directed by Aaron Weisblatt
Featuring Dave Brandt, Bruce Concors, Rachel Finn, Rob Lewis, Ben Rinker and Joan Salvato Wulff
Producer, narrator, musician and vocals: Bruce Concors
Running time: 92 minutes

by Jenny Swadosh

“I am a fly fisherman; that’s my world...It is the black hole that I’ve fallen into and I like it here.”

-- Mike Canazon, self-taught bamboo rodmaker

During the days immediately following September 11, 2001, I spent a lot of time walking the Raritan Bay shoreline of Staten Island after multiple unsuccessful attempts to reach my office in Midtown Manhattan. On one occasion, I accidentally came upon a solitary fisherman in a secluded stretch of wooded beach, seated on an upturned milk crate, heaving and shuddering in grief. That was the image I had in mind when I agreed to review Land of Little Rivers during the COVID-19 pandemic. I imagined 92 minutes of lone anglers in remote sylvan settings, lots of sweeping panoramic views, possibly set to classical music that would put me to sleep in an IMAX theater. I was wrong. This is a documentary first and foremost about a community lovingly built around the all-consuming passion for catch and release fly fishing.