Against the Tide - Storyville

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Against the Tide

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Storyville: Against the Tide

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The friendship between two indigenous Koli Bombay fishermen is tested by climate change.

A Storyville documentary that follows two Indian fishermen, Rakesh and Ganesh, whose friendship is tested as one continues with traditional fishing methods and the other tries modern technology.

Indian fishermen Rakesh and Ganesh are Kolis, the ancient indigenous fishing community of Bombay. 

Rakesh has inherited a boat and the knowledge of catching fish from his father. Like a typical Koli fisherman, he casts his nets in the creeks and shallow waters of the sea. His catch is small, and so is his income, but he somehow manages to sustain his family of his mother, his wife and their small baby. 

Rakesh’s best friend, Ganesh, is from a wealthier Koli family. He obtained a degree in finance from Scotland and returned to Bombay to run a commercial fishing boat with a crew. With bigger players using illegal fluorescent lights to catch bigger hauls deep-sea fishing, Ganesh is finding it hard to maintain his middle-class lifestyle and status, so he borrows money to buy florescent lights and a bigger crew, and they go on a risk-it-all deep-sea fishing trip. Meanwhile, Rakesh’s baby son becomes ill, and he ends up having to sell his father’s boat to pay for the treatment. 

This intimate, beautifully shot observational documentary follows Ganesh as he risks his family’s wealth while Rakesh tries to help his son and buy a new boat so he can return to his ancient way of fishing. Above all, the film is a beautiful portrait of an unlikely friendship, forged in the reality of overfishing, new technology and their indigenous traditional ways of life. 

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