UPDATE: Fishing Without Nets is now available to download on iTunes. Go give it a watch today.
If you’re at all interested in high-seas plundering, chances are you’ve seen Cutter Hodierne and John Hibey’s short film, Fishing Without Nets. It’s a 17-minute short about a bunch of Somali pirates shot in Mombasa, Kenya. Cutter and John used Somali actors for the film, and spent about three and a half months playing a byzantine game of telephone with two different translators (one who spoke English and Swahili, and another who spoke Swahili and Somali) to get it made. Their days of hard work and robberies—they were held up multiple times—paid off, and after winning the 2012 Jury Prize in Short Filmmaking at Sundance, Fishing Without Nets is being expanded into a full-length film. We got Cutter to write about the time he was almost murdered in Kenya while listening to U2 a few months ago, and a few months after that we interviewed him about the film, so needless to say we’re tickled pink about his further success.
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As you may or may not know, making a feature-length film costs roughly the same amount of money as Somalia’s GDP, meaning Cutter and John are going to need a little help from their friends (us! And you!) to make this thing the best pirate movie there ever was. Fishing Without Nets is currently in the running for The Wrap’s Short Film Festival, and if it wins the filmmakers will get $60,000 worth of camera equipment for the feature. It’s a big deal, and all you have to do to make it happen is go right here and vote. Now.
If you’d like to hear more about Fishing Without Nets and/or Cutter click this and this.
