“Big Land: Lessons from the Allagash”

Producer: Tight Loops

Big Land is the story of 4 friends embarking on the adventure of a lifetime in search of a wildness seldom found in the urban sprawl of the Anthropocene. In an effort to better understand America’s first sport fish, and the eastern seaboard’s only native trout, filmmakers and anglers Chase and Aimee Bartee lead a canoe expedition into North America’s last great and unexplored frontier; Labrador. There’s only one problem, they’ve never even paddled a canoe before.

Driven by a 15 year old rumor of an untouched and forgotten Brook Trout nirvana, Chase and Aimee, accompanied by Chris Sinclair, a Nova Scotian fishing guide and Dylan Markey, a registered Maine whitewater guide journey into the unknown. Injuries, bear encounters, hordes of bloodthirsty insects and dangerous weather force the team to adapt quickly to their new sub arctic home, or risk returning empty handed. With the fish proving to be as elusive and fleeting as the dancing Aurora above them, the crew soon discovers that their experiences on the Labrador tundra are bigger than any one fish, person, or adventure. They find themselves journeying through culture and time, trading in the shackles of the modern world for a life lived more deliberately, aligned with the rhythms of the river.

“BIG LAND” is available for download at https://vimeo.com/ondemand/bigland