‘No Guarantees’ is a PetaPixel Movie About Images, Fishing, and Fatherhood

PetaPixel Pictures is proud to current No Guarantees, a documentary movie that includes Chris Niccolls. The film explores the connection between fly fishing, images, and fatherhood.

The film, which was shot within the Tongas National Forest in Alaska, is an introspective movie the place Niccolls, normally seen as a gregarious photographer and digicam reviewer, reveals extra about himself by way of fly fishing and recollections of his father.

“My earliest memories of fishing were with my father on a train bridge in Ladner BC. My dad would sneak me out on this very dangerous wooden bridge and we would sit out on the end of the wood piling, the smell of old wood and tar all around and catch bullheads and chub with boraxed balls of salmon roe that we got at the gas station on the way there. They say early fishing memories are something you never forget and I remember everything so vividly,” Niccolls says.

From that description, it might sound as if Niccolls’ relationship along with his father was a very good one stuffed with completely happy recollections.

“No, not at all, he was an absolute piece of [redacted].”

No Guarantees explores Niccolls’ relationship along with his father and the way that impacted his personal relationship along with his youngsters.

“I don’t know why I started fishing. When I had my oldest son Kai at 25, and I was a father for the first time, something in me compelled me to try something that I had never even given a second thought to as a young man. I have this brand new baby boy and I’m working my ass off harder than I ever have before and trying to make ends meet and at the same time I just needed to learn how to fish. The idea that I had these early memories with my own father wasn’t lost on me,” he says.

“It was the same with photography too. I failed all my photo classes in university. Just didn’t have a desire and then out of nowhere I bought a vintage film camera and taught myself. What I love about fishing is that it’s always so unknown. Even if I do everything perfectly it’s not just up to me, it’s up to the fish as well. It is is about experiencing that unknown and being grateful for those experiences even when you don’t catch anything.”

In fatherhood, images, and fishing, there may be one factor in widespread: there aren’t any ensures.

No Guarantees is coming in early 2026.