Five Stars for Longfin the Film

I was raised in the teeny town of Granville, Ohio. There were 112 kids in my graduating class and only one high school in the town. So you can imagine my surprise when, during my visit to the Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival back in October, I ran into an old high school friend, Melissa Salpietra, who was there as a nominee for the "Best Newcomer" award for her film Longfin, which she co-produced with Lindsey Davidson (see more photos after the jump).

After saying our respective "Holy cows", Melissa gave me a copy of Longfin, which I held off on watching it until the arrival of my new projector (instead of a 12-inch laptop, I now have a 12-foot viewing screen--life's never been better). So I finally saw Longfin last night and feel so good (and relieved) that I can honestly report the film is excellent.

Longfin is about the longfin eel, a thick-armed-looking eel found only in New Zealand that can live an exceptionally long time--something like 60-90 years. At age 15, longfins finally settles into a sex. The main longfin of the film breeds at age 84 (no Viagra for these eels!). Unlike many natural history films, Longfin highlights human impacts as it journeys through the possible longfin fates over the decades.

For instance, for centuries longfin eels were fast food for native people, who could make a trap and smoke the eels along the river as they traveled. In the 1940s, a decade of loathing for all things indigenous, the government aimed to exterminate all longfin eels--thousands and thousands of 'vermin' met their colonial maker.

In the 1960s, the eels that escaped extermination faced a different sort of the death with the advent of a fishing industry. They are gutted and deslimed and sold around the world: smoked eels to Germany, eel "figments" (eewwww) to Belgium, live eels to Taiwan. One fisherman interviewed was not concerned about overfishing but noted that longfin eels have gotten smaller through time (a bad sign in a population noted for late breeding).

"Food, pest, profit. What would your ancestors say to this modern world willion years in the making?" asks the film.

The eels also have to survive, like most wildlife in this world, despite loss of habitat (in their case, due to dams).A trap and transfer program employs people to capture eels and set them free to breed further downstream. The older man interviewed in this segment is such a sweet character I couldn't help hoping that when I'm in my 80s (like this eel), I would have someone so nice looking out for me.

If you can get your hands on a copy of Longfin, you won't regret it. I learned all this in the 25 minutes and I feel more sensitive toward eels than ever before. Congratultions on a great project, Melissa. Best of luck and please keep Shifting Baselines posted with your future pursuits.

Lindsey Davidson.

Melissa Salpietra.

Building a fire to smoke longfins.