Ghost Fleet
Description
The plight of fishermen enslaved on vessels in Southeast Asian waters is movingly documented through the linked stories of Patima Tungpuchayakul, a Thai activist who has helped return men to their homes, and Tun Lin, who escaped captivity after eleven years and now seeks justice for himself and others. The film follows a rescue mission off the shore of Indonesia where escaped men hide on remote islands and Thai ships continue their shocking practices.
“Ghost Fleet is a striking collaboration between NPR journalist [Shannon] Service and cinematographer [Jeffrey] Waldron, following activist Patima Tungpuchayakul as she travels to a cluster of Indonesian islands in search of former slaves who’ve escaped and hidden themselves there. Waldron shoots it like a lustrous nightmare—this is one of the best-looking docs I’ve seen since Danfung Dennis’s Hell and Back Again—that doesn’t detract from the horrors being recounted, or the ugly capitalist impulse that created this world in the first place.” —Norman Wilner, NOW
Shannon Service is an American journalist and filmmaker. She has been published in the New York Times, the Guardian, and Slate. Her primary journalistic focus has been on crimes at sea. In 2012, she worked with Becky Palstrom to break the story of slavery aboard Thai fishing boats for NPR’s Morning Edition. Ghost Fleet is her first documentary feature.
Jeffrey Waldron was born in Houston and studied film at USC and the American Film Institute Conservatory. He is an award-winning cinematographer whose credits include Cement Suitcase, We Go On, and the TV series Dear White People. Ghost Fleet is his first feature film.
Film Details
Language Thai, Burmese, Bahasa
Year 2018
Runtime 88
Country USA
Director Shannon Service, Jeffrey Waldron
Producer Jon Bowermaster, Shannon Service
Editor Parker Laramie
Cinematographer Jeffrey Waldron
Music Mark degli Antoni
Print Source Vulcan Productions