Film Review: The End of the Line. Documentary as a campaign tool. Fill seats and change opinions?
The End of the Line is part of a new wave of documentaries that not only seek prizes at Film Festivals but just as important; get screened at No 10 Downing Street. The purpose of the documentary is not primarily to make money but change opinions. Age of Stupid is another example of this current crop of documentaries. What is happening to the world fish stocks is an under reported issue and End of the Line seeks to redress this problem and make the issue reportable. The film is based on a book by Charles Clover himself an angler who confesses an almost orgasmic thrill when he first caught a great big salmon. Not exactly Michael Moore but he will be our guide as I presume jets around the world to highlight the problem of factory fishing which has reduced and made some fish species extinct. Charles is ably assisted by Ted Danson who narrates, imbuing the film with a mournful tone. Danson reads as if giving a eulogy at a friends funeral. In many ways the film is a funeral for fish.
The film takes us around the fishing world from Canada, Alaska, Senegal and the Bahamas to name a few. The film unfolds less like an investigation but more a carefully selected case for the prosecution trying to determine guilty culprits in the case of all the missing fish. The film lines them up and we listen to expert witnesses tell us why they are guilty. This is not a grand conspiracy like that of another documentary 'Who Killed the Electric Car' The film is very convincing as it marshals the facts against factory fishing which started in 1952. The seabed was literally ploughed like a field and we treated fish as just another resource to be harvested with modern production methods. Enlightenment modernity in action. Footage of planes being deployed in waters of Italy to detect shoals of fish that enable factory ships to go in, scoop them up and throw away up to 10% of dead unwanted fish. What a waste. The problem the film does not overly explore enough is I feel the economic system that breeds such production and that is unbridled market capitalism which creates demand for fish and treats resources like any other commodity. This could have been the focus of the documentary but it is hinted at especially when we go to Senegal to see the effect of super trawlers on the local population. Countries like Senegal trade fishing rights for larges sums of money from Western states. So what we are perhaps dealing with is the Globalisation of the fish business. Of course blow back gets created in the form of Senegalese fishermen having no future and opting for high risk emigration to Europe as one Senegalese fisherman puts it "Europeans like our fish but not our people" Instead of concentrating on the economics that create the problem of overfishing to extinction director Rupert Murray provides images that depict fisherman as having an almost manic glee as they sail off fishing in large modern vessels that resemble very little the quaint past of simple boats with small nets. However fisherman whether on small boats or large ships risk their lives to catch food for our table. We may not agree with their methods but the fishermen who are depicted as a mob in one scen as Newfoundland halts fishing around its waters to preserve stocks. The film has a section were we go for projections of when and figure of how many for example Blue Fin tuna the world has left. This is like the film ' Peak Oil' but instead we are debating peak fish. Some scientists say 2049 others it's 2060. We get graph upon graph to illustrate this point but all this is empirical when what I wanted was the film to move along. However campaign films which argue a point find comfort in figures as they appear neutral and provide a strong convincing case for the prosecution. Next in the dock are the politicians and the EU gets it in the neck. As the black cars draw close to the EU buildings as if a funeral hearse or depositing mafia bosses at the door we get a picture of people who cannot be trusted with our fish. Indeed later after the screening the author Charles Clover vented his spleen about the EU complaining about how little power the public have to influence EU decision making of which he claims America has a better record. We might say he was a Euro Sceptic. What the film forms is a gang made up of fishermen, large corporations (Mitsubishi) and of consumers and rich ones at that. This is were the film documentary takes on a small measure of Michael Moore. Nobu in London which serves Blue Fin Tuna at an expensive price is targeted for direction action lite. However unlike Moore 'End of the Line' does not go in hard against the companies that have sold fish in such abundance to us over the years at reasonably cheap prices. Instead like a roll call the film plugs the efforts of such responsible outlets like MacDonald's and Walmart who have seen the error of their ways and will now add a warning sticker to their packaging or have a certification scheme. The solution it seems is to create an educated consumer who learn from labelling. The film falls short of calling for consumers to perhaps avoid fish this I think is a tall order as more people give up meat, turning instead to fish. The film avoids but hints at what are radical solutions one being to set up militarised no fishing zones like they do in Alaska. This requires state action and does not rely on the goodwill of corporations. Like a good campaigning film it rounds of in the fine tradition of Al Gore's 'An Inconvenient Truth' with a list of actions and the best one of all; just ask were the fish came from when you next buy. Like many problems facing the world today chief amongst them poverty the solution is not a mystery we have more than one solution but getting one acted upon is a problem and films like End of the Line stimulate debate for a way forward. The issue the film highlights is one I was not familiar with at all and that I have been able to write this piece discussing the problem is evidence that while I may not agree with elements of what the film states I am now more aware of the issue.
