Things to Consider
80 mins | 2024
Jeff Ostenson, Charles Atkinson, and
Skylar Wagner
Fish War
Fish War is about the Indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest who fought racism and police brutality to secure their treaty rights to harvest salmon.
Sponsored by:
Friday Harbor Freight
Filmmaker Q&A:
(following each in-theatre screening)
With attending filmmakers Charles Atkinson (Director); Kari Neumeyer (Producer); Willie Frank III (Subject); Ed Johnstone (Nisqually Tribal Chair, Executive Producer, NWIF Chair, Quinault member).
About
The Indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest have fought racism and police brutality to secure their treaty rights to harvest salmon. When Washington State started arresting Indigenous tribal fishers, it was a declaration of war. Scores of legal battles culminated in a landmark Supreme Court case that was meant to put an end to the violent Fish Wars. Fifty years later, they’re still fighting adversaries including habitat destruction and climate change that threaten to destroy salmon runs forever.
Fish War is an honest, and at times brutal, look at the fish wars, the US v WA court case, and the ensuing fight to save salmon. It tells the story of how Tribes have been marginalized and pushed to the brink and invites non-tribal audiences to grow an even deeper appreciation and understanding that Tribes lead the fight to save the natural world from destruction — FOR EVERYONE.
This is the first time this story has been told from the point of view of the tribal citizens who were there, and the tribal leaders who stepped forward as environmental stewards to ensure there will always be salmon in the Pacific Northwest.
Using historical footage and first-person accounts, Fish War depicts the attacks on tribal fishers in the 1970s. Among them was Nisqually fisherman Billy Frank Jr., famously arrested about 50 times for fishing off-reservation. He’d get out of jail, go fishing, and get arrested again until a landmark 1974 court decision reaffirmed his treaty-protected right to harvest salmon and established tribes as fisheries managers. The film provides cultural context to this era in the civil rights movement and will add to the ongoing discourse about environmental justice.
FILMMAKER BIO
Jeff Ostenson
Skylar Wagner
Charles Atkinson
Jeff Ostenson, producer/director
After being a mental health therapist out of University and working with his family’s fruit packing and shipping business, Jeff found his way to filmmaking in 2006. Since then, he has primarily focused on the project management and business end of making films.
Charles Atkinson, producer/director
Charles Atkinson is a filmmaker out of the Pacific Northwest. He studied filmmaking at Biola University. 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.
Skylar Wagner, director/editor
After graduating in 2010 with a Cinema and Media Arts degree from Biola University, Skylar began his career as a reality TV editor. Later he 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.
CREDITS
Directors
Jeff Ostenson, Charles Atkinson, Skylar Wagner
Producers
Kari Neumeyer, Tiffany Royal
Executive Producers
Ed Johnstone, Justin Parker
Editor
Skylar Wagner
Cast
Ramona Bennett (self)
Willie Frank III (self)
Michael Grayum (actor)
Ed Johnstone (self)
Lisa Wilson (actor)