“The Super Salmon:” A Film About One Tenacious Fish

Ryan Peterson / Dec 20, 2016 / Activism, Planet

It is with great pride and excitement that we are sharing The Super Salmon with the world—a little movie about the Su and the spotlight it’s been in these last few years. From the first screening in Talkeetna a year ago, to the dozens more that have followed across Alaska, the Lower 48, Canada, and even Europe, it has been a joy to see thousands of people so readily relate not only to our river in all its glory, but to the incredible and effective work the Susitna River Coalition (SRC) does on behalf of present and future generations.

We stopped a dam the other day in Alaska, on the Susitna River. We gave a grant of twenty-five thousand dollars to a filmmaker who was making a film called The Super Salmon. The film comes out, the guy shows it around, and the governor, just like that, he kills the dam. You don’t get many clear-cut victories like that. But sometimes all it takes is one person.

—Yvon Chouinard, The New Yorker, September 19, 2016

It has been a great honor to be entrusted to tell this story, and if I have learned anything in getting to know so many people so intimately, and seeing the fruits of their work and convictions pay off in so many ways, it is this: If you want to change the world, grassroots movements are kinda the only things that do it. And that is more true today than ever.

If you enjoy this film and are inspired to do more, please donate. Your donations go directly to SRC programs that work toward long-term protections to ensure a wild and free Susitna River long into the future.

Author Profile

Ryan Peterson

Ryan Peterson lives in Anchorage, Alaska. He has been a staffer in Juneau; a fly fishing guide in Bristol Bay and Kamchatka, Russia; and a writer and filmmaker covering conservation stories around the North Pacific Rim. The irony of evolving from catch-and-release fly fishing with barbless hooks to killing as many salmon as he can with a net is not lost on him.