NEW BEDFORD, MA (February 21, 2009) – The city’s fishing industry will be in the spotlight this summer when an independent film company comes to shoot a feature film with the working title, "Whaling City."
With a script written by Jay Burke, who grew up in Dartmouth, the film will detail the struggles of a third-generation groundfisherman, an Irish-American named Sean, whose way of life is threatened by rising costs, declining catches and increasingly restrictive government regulations. While trying to hold onto his boat and his livelihood, he becomes romantically entangled with a fisheries scientist.
Burke, who graduated from Dartmouth High School in 1989, developed the screenplay while an MFA film student at Columbia University. He said he is excited at the prospect of directing it here.
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