This film is part of Free

Small Fry

The working lives of Lowestoft fishermen are far from easy, as this sympathetically observed documentary shows.

Animation & Artists Moving Image 1975 14 mins

Overview

"If anybody wants to do the job, they're welcome to it... if they think they can stick it" declares a disenchanted Lowestoft fisherman at the end of a hard shift. The struggles and cynicism of the fishermen contrast sharply with the confident boasts of the owner of the trawler, who declares "it is my ship... it was this boat that broke the port record today."

This film was made by Cinema Action, a leftwing collective set up in 1968 which worked closely with the working-class subjects of its films. The filmmakers' approach was to let those directly involved express themselves without commentary. Their films were shown in factories and other workplaces and were intended to encourage discussion in the workplace and empower workers to take action.