Last Fish, First Boat is a 6 minute short film by Jenn Thornhill Verma (writer) and Kat Frick Miller (artist), funded by the Canada Council for the Arts through the Digital Originals initiative. Video production by LeMay Media with original music by Paragon Cause.
Watch the film here:
Film synopsis
When the cod fishery collapsed, fisherman Eugene Maloney’s livelihood is yanked out from underneath him. All his pride, all his life, everything he’s ever known is suddenly gone. Gene doesn’t recall spending days and weeks on land, certainly not in summertime. But here he is with fishing gear that’s no longer of any use. In the spring of 1992, when the Canadian government shuttered the cod fishery, Gene had fished his last cod, marking an abrupt end to a five-generations-old way-of-life for the Maloney family. But every bit the enterprising Newfoundlander, Gene turns the end of the fishery into a new beginning. He pivots to boatbuilding, a self-taught practice he continues today, in his eighties. Set in Bay Bulls, Newfoundland and Labrador, Last Fish, First Boat revisits the 1992 cod moratorium through a fisherman’s eyes. It’s an old story that holds new meaning in 2020, as a global pandemic put Canadians from coast-to-coast-to-coast out of work, stuck at home and needing to pivot. Like Gene’s story, where there’s will, Canadians will find their way.
Last Fish, First Boat is a 6-minute animated film, adapted from the 2019 book, Cod Collapse: The Rise and Fall of Newfoundland’s Saltwater Cowboys, by journalist and fellow of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society, Jenn Thornhill Verma, with still-frame animation by visual artist, Kat Frick Miller. Filmmaker Matt LeMay co-produced the film with Verma and Miller. Indie electro-rock duo, Paragon Cause, produced original music for the film. Funding for the film was provided by the Canada Council for the Arts.
Canadian Geographic is hosting the film for the public, while McIntrye Media is handling distribution to schools, libraries and other institutions interested in using the film (and its compendium curriculum for learners of all ages) for educational and instructional purposes.
