Bait 2019

The picture-postcard idyll of Cornish fishing villages is misleading. While fishing used to be a way to support families, now wealthy London tourists are descending and displacing locals, whose livelihoods are threatened. The relationship between brothers Steven and Martin was also tense. Martin is a fisherman without a boat since Steven started using it to provide more profitable tours for day tourists. They sold the family villa and now it looks like the final battle will be with the new owners over the parking space by the sea. However, the situation quickly got out of hand, and not just because of the wheel clamps. Bait is a black and white, handmade, 16mm film. The many close-ups of fish, nets, lobsters, jackboots, knots and fishing baskets recall the theory of montage attractions. The depiction of different social classes - class relations, as it were - also recalls the tradition of social realism in British cinema. Most importantly, however, beneath the various layers of film historical references in the images are many current political connections waiting to be discovered. The picture-postcard idyll of the Cornwall fishing villa