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Many of you have probably heard of the new film coming out... Erik, KK, and I saw a short clip at the last fly fishing retailer show.  Other than that I have not heard much but film coordinator Kristi Denton Cohen e-mailed us this today.

A good start.  We’ll take it.  More soon, I hope! 

We’ve go this early screening at the Ashland Film Fest on April 9 and 10, then the official World Premiere at the Dallas Int’l Film Fest on April 14 and 15.  Then at the Newport Beach Film Festival on April 23 as well as at the Athens (OH) International Film and Video Festival that same day.

All the best,

Kristi

"The River Why," feature, 101 minutes

Producer Kristi Denton Cohen waited 20 years to make a beautiful film based on David James Duncan's iconic coming-of-age fishing novel set in Oregon, and the wait was worth it. Gus Orviston, 20, leaves his fishing, bickering parents' home to live in a cabin on the river and order his life so that he can fish 141/2 hours a day.

Gotta be bliss, right? Wrong. He's soon frustrated and lost. But the right guides turn up at just the right moments as Gus moves toward awareness.

This is lovely, understated filmmaking. Director Matthew Leutwyler wisely lets his camera and his actors, including the eye-popping Wilson River near Portland, (this is one of those stories in which the environment is a character) tell the story. When it looks this easy, you know it was hard work indeed.

Although the cinematography is stunning, the producer says it's still a work in progress, and she allowed it to be shown as a thank-you to Oregon. The final version will reportedly be yet more beautiful.

Bill Varble, Southern Oregon Tribune