February 12, 2018 — 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.

For Wittkower, the film is a chance to tell the story of the virtual disappearance of an industry rooted in his Cape Ann childhood. For the producers, particularly Sanfilippo, it is a chance to not only set the fishermen’s side of the debate, but to frame and personalize the issue in ways the industry has been unable to do before.

The film, already shown in Rockport and New Bedford, was privately screened in Gloucester last year.

So Saturday’s twin-bill was the first public screening in America’s oldest commercial seaport, the first true home game for the film whose sweeping cinematography features Gloucester as the centerpiece and its fishermen as the core characters.

“I thought it was amazing,” said Peggy Matlow of Gloucester, following the morning screening in the museum’s auditorium and Granite Gallery. “It was enlightening and so well done.”

But like many before her, Matlow left the screening with a gnawing sense of frustration at the uneven financial and regulatory playing field portrayed in the film.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times