Okie Noodling

Color, NR (nothing offensive), 59 min., DVD only $14.98

DVD: director's commentary, isolated music track

Street: Feb. 3, Prebook: now

First Run: L, March 2001, NA

Director: Bradley Beesley

Justin McFarlin's favorite part of noodling is "getting bit." This is fortunate, since noodling, also known as handfishing, is a practice of going underwater to where large catfish live and catching them with your bare hands--no fishing poles, nothing but "bare skin to bare skin," as one noodler puts it. Director Beesley goes to his home state of Oklahoma to explore this regional phenomenon, which is legal in only four states, and comes up with a fascinating documentary about noodling and the men who noodle. (There are no women who noodle, only the wives on land who worry about their husbands getting their arms bitten off or, worse, getting trapped underwater.) What started as a Native American fishing practice is considered by many today to be a "lost art," and many noodlers also consider themselves hunters, not just fisherman, because of the danger involved. Set to a soundtrack by rising Oklahoma alternative rocker the Flaming Lips, Okie Noodling features affectionate portraits of the noodlers, including Jerry "Catfish" Rider, a school custodian who appeared years ago on The David Letterman Show to showcase his noodling skills, and Lee McFarlin, a plumber and member of a family that has three generations of noodlers. The last part of the film details the first ever noodling tournament (now in its fourth year, according to the Okie Noodling Web site), and viewers will be surprised to find themselves cheering for the men they've gotten to know. This one will definitely find a niche with the growing group of cinephiles with a penchant for the equally expanding universe of off-center documentaries. --Mayna Bergmann

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