Susquehanna University’s Eric Braker ’21, along with his brother, produced a short film about the Chesapeake Bay that was named the official selection of the 2021 Fly Fishing Film Tour and selected to appear at the Annapolis Film Festival.
Braker and his brother, Andrew, completed the film, A Journey Upstream, despite Covid-19 restrictions because the topic—fly fishing—allowed them to have a very small crew, with Braker as the principle cinematographer.
Braker and his brother are native Marylanders who grew up fishing in the Chesapeake and its surrounding waters, so A Journey Upstream is a very personal project for them.
“We wanted to highlight the idea that it’s the younger generation’s responsibility to use their passion and their skills to make a difference in the world around them, while also promoting the importance of getting passionate about conservation issues,” Braker said.
After creating many smaller-scale videos, Braker said he felt “a burning desire to create a larger-scale film to spark meaningful conversation about the health of his home watershed.”
A Journey Upstream does just that by telling the tale of two seemingly unrelated fish to help individuals understand the connectivity between the environment and a healthy Chesapeake Bay watershed.
Braker, a marketing major, hopes to one day be able to devote his attention full-time to his own video marketing business, Motion Digital, that he started in 2019 and used to produce “A Journey Upstream.” For now, his post-graduation plans include working full-time for a real estate marketing company in Washington, D.C., and growing Motion Digital through documentary and corporate video production.
The Annapolis Film Festival is a ten-day virtual event that ran in April 2021.
