- The films, which blur the lines between fiction and reality, offer insights into daily lives, working conditions.
- The filmmaker created a narrative that falls between reality and fiction. It was a way of showing the limbo the men were living in.
- “Cargo,” directed by Laura Waddington, is the story of a journey on a container ship with a group of Rumanian and Filipino sailors, who were delivering cargo to the Middle East.
The Santa Barbara Maritime Museum (SBMM) will present Cargo in Question: Two Films about Labor, Shipping, and Globalization in the 21st Century, 7 p.m. Thursday, April 20 at 113 Harbor Way, Ste. 190.
Maritime cargo ships films
At the event, Mae Miller-Likhethe and Charmaine Chua, UCSB assistant professors of global studies, will show the films “Cargo” (2001) and “All that Perishes at the Edge of Land” (2019), each about 30 minutes long, followed by a 90-minute Q&A and discussion.
The films, which blur the lines between fiction and reality, offer insights into the daily lives, working conditions, and dreams of the seamen and ship-breakers across global supply chains.
Admission is free for SBMM’s Navigator Circle Members, $10 for all other members, and $20 for members of the public.
Realities of work
In “All that Perishes at the Edge of Land,” directed by Hira Nabi, Ocean Master, a decommissioned container vessel, enters into a dialogue with several workers at the Gadani yards.
The conversation moves between dreams, desires, places that can be called home, and the violence embedded in the act of dismantling a ship at Gadani.
As the workers recall the homes and families they left behind, the long work days meld into one another, and they are forced to confront the realities of their work in which they are faced with death every day.
Navigation between reality and fiction
“Cargo,” directed by Laura Waddington, is the story of a journey on a container ship with a group of Rumanian and Filipino sailors, who were delivering cargo to the Middle East.
Most of the sailors weren’t allowed to leave the boat, and so spent their days waiting, singing karaoke and telling stories in a small TV room. In Syria, the ports were military zones.
The filmmaker hid at a porthole and secretly filmed the life below (a man stealing wood and a soldier fishing off the edge of an abandoned submarine), and later created a narrative that falls between reality and fiction. It was a way of showing the limbo the men were living in.
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Source: Nooz Hawk
