Tag Archives: documentary
The Fisherman is the Ultimate American Hero – Fish and Men
A decade ago, while living in coastal New Hampshire, Darby Duffin had a conversation with the wife of a local fisherman. That conversation “hit me in the gut,” he said, and it haunted him for the next two years.,, “It stuck with me because it struck me emotionally,” he said. “It made me stop and think of the fishing community and the families that are involved because we don’t hear about them. Duffin took a closer look into local fishing communities, something he called “this iconic American trade so intrinsic to the cultural and economic vitality of the region” and discovered it had “devolved into a slow, quiet death spiral.” Worse, its demise seemed to be going unnoticed. Video, >click to read< 08:50
Exploiting Irish Fishermen – Documentary ‘lifts the lid on decades of unfairness’
Irish fishing communities have commissioned their own documentary to highlight the crisis in coastal communities which they say has been caused by decades of unfair EU fishing policy. They have invited politicians to its screening in Dublin today as a follow-on to their high-profile protest flotillas staged in Cork and Dublin ports earlier this year. Amidst a growing crisis in the fishing industry, Irish fishermen enlisted the help of Sean Moroney,, It has led to the creation of a 26-minute documentary that fishermen say finally “lifts the lid on decades of unfairness” caused by the EU’s Common Fisheries Policy’s (CFP) allocation of the lion’s share, some 85%, of the total allowable catch, or quota, to the mainland European countries, despite the majority of this fishing taking place in Irish waters. Exploiting Irish Fishermen – the EU’s Common Fisheries Policy >click to read< 09:16
A miraculous turn of events – Michael Moore and Driessen agree! Wind, solar and biofuel energy are devastating Planet Earth
Never in my wildest dreams did I envision a day when I’d agree with anything filmmaker Michael Moore said – much less that he would agree with me. But mirabile dictu, his new film, Planet of the Humans, is as devastating an indictment of wind, solar and biofuel energy as anything I have ever written. The documentary reflects Moore’s willingness to reexamine environmentalist doctrine. It’s soon obvious why more rabid greens tried to have the “dangerous film” banned. Indeed, Films for Action initially caved to the pressure and took Planet off its website, but then put it back up. The film is also on YouTube. >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
Bluefin tuna in P.E.I. are so hungry they no longer fear humans
Bobbing up and down on cold Atlantic waters, several fishermen toss scaly, silver mackerel overboard. It’s a delicious snack for a bluefin tuna — the largest species of tuna in the world, measuring more than six feet in length and weighing up to 1,600 pounds. The newcomer among them, a writer and ecologist, expects to spend the afternoon patiently waiting for a bite. Instead, the bluefin tuna here in North Lake, P.E.I. are so abundant and so hungry that within minutes their trademark yellow caudal finlets are circling the boat. click here to read the story 18:29
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
Damon Stuebner: USCGC Storis documentary was an 8-year ‘labor of love’
A Juneau man has made a film about the Storis, a dainty icebreaker by polar standards, that rescued mariners and enforced the law along Alaska’s coast for almost 60 years. It took Damon Stuebner eight years to make this documentary. “It was a labor of love,” Stuebner said. It traces Storis’ journey, from its work in World War II, to its long history in Alaska dating to 1948 when it came to Juneau. Stuebner said the story of the ship tells Alaska’s story. “Storis was there for the Exxon Valdez oil spill. It was there for the trans-Alaska pipeline construction. It was there for the 1964 Earthquake … It was the very first ship to have law enforcement seizures in the Bering Sea.” Perhaps most suspenseful is the story of Storis’ attempt to rescue the fishermen of the Alaskan Monarch in the Bering Sea in 1990. It’s a saga told with interviews and video from multiple cameras that were on scene. Movie trailer, Read the rest here 10:04
This Irish documentary about fishing and oil is making people angry
The Atlantic Ocean can be wild, dangerous, beautiful and mystical. It provides a stunning view, a home to shoals of fish and marine life. But it also provides a livelihood for fishermen and those who trawl the sea for fish, and companies who drill for oil and gas. Director Risteard Ó Domhnaill is the man behind the acclaimed documentary The Pipe, about the Shell pipeline controversy in Rossport, Co Mayo. It was an intimate story, but one which taught him about the bigger picture of politics and industry around natural resources, says the director. Atlantic was meant to be a half-hour documentary about the oil and gas resources that Ireland has, but like many projects, it blossomed. The resulting film looks at how these resources as well as the fishing industry are treated in Ireland – but also in Newfoundland and in Norway. Read the story here 08:57
N.L.’s fishing industry featured in Irish documentary
A new documentary that tells of Ireland’s troubled fishing industry, Newfoundland’s cod moratorium and Norway’s oil industry is getting some attention on the other side of the pond. “Atlantic,” by Irish director Risteard Ó Domhnaill (Richie O’Donnell), won the Best Irish Documentary award at the Dublin International Film Festival, according to The Southern Star, a publication in southern Ireland. The crowd-funded documentary was pitched on fundit.ie as a documentary that “follows the fortunes of three fishing communities united and divided by the Atlantic ocean, as they struggle to maintain their way of life despite mounting challenges within their own industry and environment, and an increase of oil exploration activities in their fishing grounds. Read the rest here 15:05
Counting Fish – The full documentary can be seen here!
New England groundfishermen are in trouble. The annual catch limits are now set so low that many boats remain tied to the dock. But controversy abounds. The fishing industry has expressed no confidence in the NOAA trawl survey that provides the raw data for the stock assessment. But counting fish in the ocean is no easy task. While everyone agrees that more and better data is needed NOAA Fisheries says its resources are already overtaxed. UMass Dartmouth marine scientist Kevin Stokesbury believes he may have found a solution- using cameras to record fish passing through a net that is intentionally left open, allowing them to escape unharmed. For an unvarnished look into the world of commercial fishing and cutting-edge marine research, join the crew of the F/V Justice of New Bedford for this May 2015 research trip to the famed fishing ground of Georges Bank. Watch the full documentary here. 12:51
Interview – “Counting Fish” – Don Cuddy tells how the film came about
“Counting Fish” a new documentary by Don Cuddy, profiles the work of Dr. Kevin Stokesbury, researcher at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, in his efforts to improve the way scientists assess fish stocks. Stokesbury drags a net with an open end, which fish swim through. As the fish pass out of the net, cameras record them. Scientists can then identify fish by their images. This allows for longer tows – as much two hours at a time – and the fish are not killed by the process. Listen to the interview here 08:47
