Film Review: Once in a Blue Moon
Tuesday, May 12, 2009 at 12:00AM 
Synopsis:
The incredible story of a once in a lifetime event.
Set amongst the spectacular scenery of southern New Zealand, a most strange and bizarre tale unfolds. The stuff of folklore, ‘Once in a Blue Moon’ unravels the mystery of an event that occurs briefly once a decade. This strange and unreal journey takes us into some of the most remote and beautiful parts of New Zealand as we follow one anglers quest to document and unravel a childhood mystery and catch the fish of a lifetime.
Background:
In an unpredictable chain of events a mass flowering of the ancient New Zealand Beech forest leads to an excess of seed production. Mice and rodents take advantage of this abundance and numbers reach plague proportions. Incredible footage follows these rodents as they embark on a strange migration, attempting to swim across the expanse of New Zealand's rivers and lakes. There they fall prey to the largest predators in the lake - monster Brown trout. Gorging themselves on swimming mice, these fish become extremely aggressive and grow to epic proportions. For a fly fishing Angler, this is the stuff dreams are made of.
This bizarre phenomenon has remained a mystery - until now.
Chum Thoughts:
The hatch of recent fly flicks is starting to turn some of us into selective eaters. But this one is presented in just the right water with just the right drift.
After viewing it with Mrs. Rathbun (who at this point is getting pretty tired of watching fly related stuff) we both agreed - this is different. Like Hustle and Fish and like Rivers of the Lost Coast, Once in a Blue Moon takes a unique approach that will suck you in. By combining some really powerful cinematography, with the story of a mysterious food-chain lifecycle, it does things we've not seen before.
It's a short piece (36 mins) and isn't the feature fly fishing film experience we've come to expect lately. In our opinion, it's more of a discovery channel thing.
It's is available for sale here.
As posted on the Chum in the past - here's the trailer
Fly Fishing - Once in a Blue Moon 60sec promo from On the Fly on Vimeo.