In the early 1800s, New Bedford was the world’s leading whaling port, and only the
ports of New York, Boston, and New Orleans moved more overall tonnage each
year. Herman Melville immortalized the city in his novel Moby Dick, and people say that Queen Victoria could easily find the
town on a map of the world. It was that famous. Today, New Bedford is the
top-revenue commercial fishing port in the U.S., but most Americans probably
can’t tell you what state it’s in.
Now filmmaker Jay Burke hopes to put New Bedford back on the
map with his film “Whaling City,” a fictional account of the day-to-day lives
of modern New Bedford commercial fisherman. GoFISHn spoke to him about the project.
Q: It’s a long way
from Columbia University’s film program to New Bedford. Tell us about the trip.
A: Completing a feature-length screenplay was a requirement
of the graduate film program I was enrolled in. I got the idea for this on a
trip home from Columbia to visit relatives near New Bedford, where I was born. That’s
when I was really struck by how cinematic New Bedford is. So I started learning more about commercial
fishing and wrote the script off and on over the course of 10 years.
Q: Haven’t lots of
things changed for New Bedford economically over the past 10 years? Did that
affect the development of the script?
A: Yes and no. There has been an economic rebound in New
Bedford over the past 15 years, but a lot of the rebound has been related to
scalloping. Fifteen years ago, those were the guys having the hard time. Since then,
regulations have changed, and things are better. But now the ground fishermen
are getting clobbered.
Q: So is “Whaling
City" a heavily political film?
A: I try not to be political, and I always emphasize that we
are telling a fictional dramatic story in this film. The point is that the regulations
are having a huge effect on people. Once
some of these regulations are imposed, people go out of business and can’t
reopen shop later if the regulations are changed back. These multi-generation
fishing families are a piece of American culture—we’re talking about more than
a guy on a boat. I believe that most commercial fishermen are aware of the
importance of sustainability and understand the importance of not over-fishing.
But fisheries issues have become polarized
and politicized. I am not trying to be a spokesman for the fisheries. But maybe I can shed light on some of these
issues, and people will be motivated to learn more about the many points of
view and economic models that are out there.
We have lots of questions to answer before multi-generation fishermen go
out of business for good.
But we’re not making a documentary. We only took some issues
so deep because rules can change so fast. This isn’t the place to be too granular with the
details. We want to entertain and attract people to the subject matter.
Q: Did you film in
New Bedford? Did you use real fishermen as actors in the film?
A: Yes, we filmed primarily in New Bedford and a little in
and around Wesport, Fairhaven, and Fall River. We used SAG [Screen Actors
Guild] actors, but because we were in this ultra-low budget situation, SAG
allowed us to use real working people from the fishing industry as well. It’s a
nice mix. The SAG actors were cast out
of Boston, and some of them had parts in movies like “Mystic River” and “The
Departed.”
Q: It must have been tough
to get financial backing for a film over the past few years. Where did the help come from?
A: Through Columbia,
the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation awarded me two grants. In 2005, I won a $10,000
screenwriting grant, and in 2007 was awarded a $100,000 feature film production
grant. That’s not a lot of money for a feature-length film, so it’s been a
labor of love. We tried to use the Sloan money as seed money to raise
additional funds starting in 2008. But in the end, we just decided to go for
it, because the issues in fisheries were moving so fast all around us. We just
decided to go for it.
A: When and where can
we see “Whaling City”?
Right now we’re working 7 days a
week in post-production on the film. We plan to have a test screening near New
Bedford in the late spring and have a goal of going to distributor film
festivals during the summer. These are
the people who might be interested in putting the film out to a wider audience.
To stay posted on the progress of Jay Burke’s film, check in
at Whalingcityfilm.com.
