Locked away in the California desert, more than 10,000 Americans of Japanese descent faced an uncertain future at the World War II internment camp at Manzanar. Armed Military Police, guard towers and barbed wire sent the clear message that they were prisoners in their own country.

The Manzanar Fishing Club is the uplifting tale of those who sought and found moments of freedom by escaping the Camp to fish the surrounding waters of the famed Eastern Sierra.

And in the process, they gave new meaning to the old phrase, “Gone Fishing.”