O Peixe

Since the Haeler Echo Earthly Impressions screening was at full capacity I chose to see O Peixe by Jonathas de Andrade at the New Museum. The film was being screened in the backroom on the first floor in a room with 6 seats and a tinted glass wall on one side. I really liked that they had four speakers set up because the sound was really amazing, just the sound of the ambient waters and nature was super calming and Zen- feeling. I felt the film worked really well without any dialogue, and the sounds of the water and the fish made the piece even better. I really connected to this film, as I grew up in a beach town on Long Island and have been fishing my whole life. I found it so interesting the way these men soothed these fish to their deaths, and how the fish kind of just slowly died. Its such a different culture than what I was used to seeing, people tossing fish over the side of the boat and letting them flop and bleed all over the floor until they finally die. It was strange to see someone who was killing a creature for most likely to sell or to eat treating them with almost respect to take the time to sit there and wait for the fish to die. Each man had a slightly different fishing technique, like all fishermen do. Whether it was using a net, a sphere, or spool. They all also has their slightly different techniques while waiting for the fish to die. The man with the chain flipped the fish over and over again and one of the men even kissed the fish. I also really enjoyed when the focus was on the men’s body movements while fishing, it was very visually pleasing to see the muscle in the body being worked and used and only being able to see the mid section on the body left the eye drawn to nothing else. It was also nice when they focused on each fishermen’s eyes which made the experience more intimate.

O Peixe