Tag Archives: David Wittkower
SOLD OUT EVENT!!! Spreading Gloucester’s story
On Monday night, Angela Sanfilippo of the Fishermen’s Wives Association, longtime fisherman Al Cottone and former Gloucester Mayor John Bell — along with J.J. Bartlett of the Fishing Partnership Support Services — were the true centerpieces in a food-and-film gala that highlighted the plight of American commercial fishermen and the bounty that is Gloucester seafood. The sold-out event, titled From Sea to Sustainable Sea: Supporting American Wild Seafood, combined the Midwest premier of the Gloucester-centric fishing documentary “Dead in the Water” by Rockport native David Wittkower sandwiched between a cocktail hour and a seafood feast featuring Gloucester-landed monkfish, redfish, crabs, lobsters and other seafood delights. >click to read <09:29
“Dead in the Water” – Documentary on Plight of N.E. Ground Fishermen to be Screened in 4 Maine Towns
Maine residents will have an opportunity soon to witness the devastating impacts of federal regulations on the lives of New England ground fishermen, as seen through the eyes of a documentary filmmaker with a long record of acclaimed work. David Wittkower’s “Dead in the Water” will be shown at four Maine community theaters in April. It will be shown in Kittery, Waterville, Boothbay Harbor. and in Belfast. The 7 p.m. screenings will be followed by a question period and panel discussion featuring local, New England commercial fishermen and the film makers. For location information, >click to read<18:31
Newburyport: ‘Dead in the Water’ to be screened at Custom House Maritime Museum April 4 at 7:30 p.m.
A new documentary film dealing with the devastating impact of federal regulations on the lives of New England ground fishermen will be shown at a Custom House Maritime Museum fundraising screening April 4 at 7:30 p.m. Wittkower, a graduate of the American Film Institute who has been living and working in Los Angeles since 1981, describes “Dead in the Water” as an examination of “the relentless destruction of the New England ground fishing industry through government regulations, bad science, and the growing, but mistaken, belief that everything has been overfished and there aren’t any fish left in the oceans.” >click to read<10:04
‘Dead in the Water’ screened in Gloucester – ‘We knew it was bad, but we had no idea how bad’
There have been almost a half-dozen screenings now of the “Dead in the Water” documentary on the commercial fishing crisis and one things is clear: Most people who don’t fish for a living have no real grasp of the complexities and challenges that fishermen face every day just to keep fishing. That, of course, was one of the motivating forces in the making of the film, both for director David Wittkower, a Rockport native, and stakeholder producers John Bell and Angela Sanfilippo.,, “It’s accurate and it’s painful,” Sanfilippo said Saturday morning before the first of two sold-out screenings at the Cape Ann Museum. “But it’s the truth.” >click to read< 18:25
“Dead in the Water” premiere packed
John Friedrich drove down here from Amesbury on Saturday afternoon for the sole purpose of attending the premiere of the fishing documentary “Dead in the Water” at the Rockport High School auditorium. Friedrich had read a story in the Newburyport Daily News about the documentary that chronicles the demise and unceasing challenges faced by the once-mighty Gloucester groundfish fleet and thought it was something he should see, to gauge for himself the true extent of the problem. “I thought the film was very well done,” he said of the 15th documentary from veteran filmmaker and Rockport native David Wittkower. “But it was also very disturbing, just emotionally disturbing. It’s such a tragedy. The problem is so much more huge than I imagined.” click here to read the story 18:17
Premiering Saturday – ‘Dead in the Water’ showing in Rockport to benefit Fisherman’s Fund
When he embarked on his documentary “Dead in the Water” in 2013 as a cinematic army of one, David Wittkower operated with the sense that he was capturing, if not the final act, then certainly the denouement of the Gloucester fishing crisis. He had, on visits to his native Rockport from his home in Los Angeles, seen the atrophying of the once-proud commercial fishing fleet and decided it was a Gloucester story worth telling. Little did the veteran filmmaker know of the national and global nature of what he was witnessing along the waterfront of America’s oldest commercial fishing seaport. click here to read the story Watch the trailer click here 08:06
‘Dead in the Water’ – New film chronicles the spiraling decline of Gloucester’s fishing industry
It’s now been more than three years since David Wittkower, struck by the spiraling decay of the Gloucester groundfishing fleet, decided to make a film chronicling its decline from the robust fleet he remembered as a kid growing up in Rockport. The making of Wittkower’s film, “Dead in the Water,” as with nearly every film project ever devised, has been an arduous slog through an endless array of creative decisions and more earthly problems—chief among them how to raise enough money to create the film the Los Angeles-based director first envisioned. Now, with the assistance of the Gloucester Fishermen’s Wives Association and generous benefactors throughout Cape Ann, Wittkower is closing in on having enough capital to finish the film and assemble a working print, possibly by as early as Thanksgiving. Read the story here 09:47
Rockport native filming an industry under seige – “Dead in the Water”
As a kid growing up in Rockport, David Wittkower remembers driving down along the Gloucester waterfront and being greeted by the sight of the expansive Gloucester fishing fleet at port and the scent of fish, either being cooked or unloaded. That memory stayed with the 55-year-old filmmaker when he returned to visit his parents, Andrew and Mary, about a year-and-a-half ago, especially after what he observed in subsequent nostalgic drives along East Main and Rogers streets. “Every single day, I would drive down there and think, ‘Well, the entire fleet can’t all be out at once,’” Wittkower said. “I thought, ‘Where are all the boats?’” Read the rest here 11:59
