Tuesday, May 24, 2011 at 12:00AM 
Frank Smethurst is interviewed as part of this performance of The Dirt Bag Diaries recorded live at the 5 Point Film Festival in Carbondale Colorado.
Eastern Rises won the People's Choice Award at the festival.
eastern rises, frank smethhurst, the dirt bag diaries in Podcast Monday, November 22, 2010 at 12:04AM 
Kelly Cordes, Patagonia Alpine Climbing Ambassador and Senior Editor at the American Alpine Club, just caught Eastern Rises at the opening night of the Adventure Film Festival in Boulder.
It’s about fly fishing. Huh? I’ve never fly fished and, honestly, I never really “got it.” I know there must be something there, though, because even if it makes as much sense to me as drinking margaritas in Russia, people love it, obsess over it like I do with climbing, and friends do with skiing and surfing. Tons of people at Patagonia go nuts for it. Cool. But still, I didn’t really understand the allure. Until last night. [Photo: Felt Soul Media]
The rest of Kelly's review with bonus Marg recipe.
Some pretty serious props from a guy who does this for a living.
I forwarded the Cordes link on to Travis and Ben at Felt Soul and Travis replied saying he had gotten a similar response from one of The North Face climbing ambassadors. When a film can inspire a couple of non-angling uber outdoor athletes to publicly talk about how they never thought fishing could be cool, the industry might want to sit up and take notice. Maybe that Outdoor Retailer strategy some of us were pushing wasn't such a bad idea after all? Instead of patting ourselves on the back for stuffing Oprah and her friend Gayle into a pair of "wading jeans", what we should be doing is coming up with a media strategy to put the soul of our sport in front of outdoor enthusisats who never considered that fishing could be cool.
To quote another another non angling friend who is well connected in the adventure biz:
Watched the film over the weekend – loved it. I always find it interesting to see how the genetic coding of the adventure seeking soul is the same from sport to sport and passion to passion. The girl riding spines outside of Valdez, the guy picking the plumb line off of a peak in the Karakorum, or the fella hooking a 20lb rainbow in the end of the world are all pretty much feeding the same beast through different means.
Tuesday, September 28, 2010 at 12:05AM 
Oh, great - another Felt Soul hot spotting flick. First you destroy Baja, and now they'll be douche bags crowding every inch of Kamchatka. What's next, Nile Perch in Uganda? You guys ruin everything.
- Tom Bie - The Drake
Сметхерст это клоун!
- Bigfoot
This film gave me a super kundzha in my pants!
- El Guapo
Order your copy today, it's really good.
When you get your copy make sure to check out the two extra short films, especially the piece on One Percent for the Planet.
Wednesday, September 8, 2010 at 12:05AM 
The Wild Steelhead Coalition is hosting their annual fall BBQ this Thursday night at the UW Center for Urban Center. Entertainment for the evening will be a special screening of Eastern Rises which will be making it's industry premier at the IFTD show that same night in Denver. Here's a great chance to eat some brats, socialize with some great people who volunteer their time for wild steelhead and top it off with a chance to screen a really great film. There will be some nice raffle prizes as well so bring some cash and help support the cause.
Thursday, July 29, 2010 at 12:03AM 
The reviews are in!
Ben Knight's cynical, snarky narration pulls you along on this humorous and intriguing tale of fishing Far East Russia. The cinematography is superb, the storytelling excellent, and the angling aspirational. Felt Soul may have made better film festival-ey movies, but they've never produced a better flyfishing movie." – Tom Bie, The Drake
Он чертовски большой! - El Guapo
Kamchatka is a big place, perhaps the biggest, and so it goes - Kilgore Trout
I had a chance to screen it last week in Telluride with a couple of the protaganists, it's really good.
Pre-order your copy today. LINK
Monday, April 12, 2010 at 12:03AM 
Straq over at Way Upstream has the latest beta from Travis at Felt Soul regarding Eastern Rises.
"Eastern Rises is finally done – almost. It has taken us a bit longer than planned, but the final film is our best to date and hopefully will be judged to be worth the wait. ER will premier at the 2010 Telluride Mountainfilm Festival (mountainfilm.org) at the end of May. The DVD will be released soon after the premier. We thank you for your patience and continued interest.
In the meantime we started a mini-site for ER at www.easternrises.com, there’s not much to see there at the moment besides some Russian mosquitos doing pull ups and the ER trailer, but as we get closer to dropping the DVD we will get it fully dialed and worth a visit. Stay tuned."
eastern rises, felt soul media in Film and Video 
