June 9, 2012 — There have been plenty of headlines devoted to the problems besetting the commercial fishing industry in New England in recent years. But fishermen in other parts of the country also have been suffering as they struggle to preserve their traditional way of life in the face of globalization.
"Wild Caught: The Life and Struggles of an American Fishing Town," a film documentary showing here Friday night, offers an intimate look inside the small fishing community of Sneads Ferry in North Carolina, where sustainable small-scale shrimping, crabbing and fishing have provided a livelihood for its hardy inhabitants for more than 300 years.
The film introduces us to characters such as John Wayne Midgett, a crabber teaching his young son how to fish, and shrimper Mac Liverman, who is passing his knowledge of the sea down to his young grandson. Matthew Barr's documentary takes his audience onto the boats and into the homes and churches of these hard-working, shore-dwelling people.
"Wild Caught" has been screened around the country and at a film festival in France, and comes to New Bedford as part of the monthly Dock-U-Mentaries series, a co-production of the New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park and the Working Waterfront Festival.
The locale may differ from New Bedford — and the accents surely do — but the problems these southern fishermen face sound very familiar. Burdensome regulations, low catch limits, rising fuel costs and competition from cheap imports have forced many longtime fishermen to abandon the fishing business.
Released in 2006, "Wild Caught" is the product of a warm relationship that film maker Matthew Barr and his wife Cornelia developed over several years with the extended fishing families of this small community.
"I'm interested in documentaries about working people, traditional ways of life and the threats posed by modernity," Barr said in a phone interview. His previous work includes "Carnival Train," a documentary on traveling carnivals and the people who staff them.
A professor at the University of North Carolina in Greensboro, Barr stumbled across Sneads Ferry in 1999 when he was offered a stay in a condo there, and noticed the shrimp boats passing by. "I spent nine months hanging around and gained the trust of folks," he said.