Anything I Catch: The Handfishing Story

1990 30 mins.  |  Louisiana filmmaker Pat Mire teams up with cinematographer Charles Bush to capture the natural drama of handfishing

Buy this film · $20.00

Anything I Catch is a remarkable study of the relationship between cultural and natural resources. It is one of the best documentaries I have seen on any aspect of Louisiana French culture.”

Barry Jean Ancelet, folklorist

Institutional (college and library) purchases of this dvd can be made by sending a check to Pat Mire Films for $100 per dvd to the address indicated in the Contact section. Please contact Pat Mire for information on licensing fees for public screenings of this film or to book Pat for a lecture and film screening.

Louisiana filmmaker Pat Mire teams up with cinematographer Charles Bush to capture the natural drama of handfishing in this award-winning documentary. Highly visual, the film examines the thrilling regional phenomenon of Cajuns who wade in murky bayou waters to catch huge catfish and turtles by reaching into hollow logs and stumps with their bare hands. Friends and family accompany the handfishermen to the bayou banks for Cajun music, festive cooking, and storytelling, and to witness this increasingly rare tradition. Told from the inside with multiple voices, Mire explores the chain of events set off by man’s attempt to “improve” his environment by dredging bayous in this remarkable study of the relationship between cultural and natural resources.

This film aired nationally on PBS and the Discovery Channel.