Director Bryan Smith

Bryan Smith is an adventure filmmaker and expedition kayaker based out of Squamish, British Columbia. His involvement in the paddling industry spans both the sea and whitewater realms.  He built an impressive set of kayaking credentials on the sea through the British Canoe Union and went on to co-found Body Boat Blade International sea kayaking school.  Paddling first descents on steep, difficult rivers has taken him all over the world including Peru, India, Ecuador and across North America.  He was part of a six-person team in 2003 that completed the first descent of the Lohit River in India’s remote Arunachal Pradesh.  In 2006 he produced the winning application for the first annual IR Vacation to Hell that sent him and fellow Range Life teammates on the first descent of the Rio Huallaga in Peru.  His involvement with the sport coupled with an intense passion for cinematography has allowed his production company Reel Water Productions to produce several award winning films in the past few years.

He was awarded “Best Over All Film” at the National Paddling Film Festival in 2007 with BC Summer 2006. His first documentary 49 Megawatts was acclaimed both for its amazing kayaking footage and for exposing the controversy over British Columbia’s river based energy production at the 2007 Planet In Focus film festival in Toronto.  It then went on to win “Best Environmental Film” at the 2008 Vancouver International Mountain Film Festival.  His most recent film, Pacific Horizons; Exploring the Northwest Coast by Kayak, is the first in a series of sea kayaking adventure films about the oceans of North America.  It was a finalist in the 2007 Banff Mountain Film Festival, official selection at the Vancouver International Mountain Film Festival and San Francisco Ocean Film Festival and won “Best Sea Kayaking Film” at the 2008 Reel Paddling Film Festival.  Currently Bryan is working on the production of Eastern Horizons, which documents the great sea paddling destinations of North America’s east coast.