First Person Arts

Okie Noodling 2 and Salon du Festival

Thursday 7-8pm (10$) and 8:30-10:30pm (15$)

Philadelphia SHOULD be a river city.  It’s surrounded by rivers, and to get almost anywhere worthwhile you’ve got to cross at least one of them.  But you could live in this city your entire life and never get up-close and personal with either of the big rivers in town.  Odd that.  Sure, fishing’s not for everyone, but more people do it than you might think, and they do it in places and ways you might never have imagined.

On Thursday, November 13th, we’ll be screening Okie Noodling 2, a documentary by Brad Beasley (with music from the Flaming Lips) about a particular kind of fishing that requires its practitioners to jam their hands into the fish’s burrow encouraging it to bite down on the offending limb!  It’s brutal, hilarious, and well, kind of enticing:

Interestingly enough, the Flathead Catfish has recently become an invasive species in our own Schuylkill River, and the folks at the Philadelphia Anglers Club have reported catching enormous specimens.  There have not yet, however, been reports of noodlers in the Schuykill.  Stick around after the screening of Okie Noodling 2 for the Salon du Festival and a short documentary about Philadelphia’s fishermen and women called Hooked: Philly’s Urban Anglers.

(And check out who else is going to be at the Salon!)