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Cutter Hodierne: It was always meant to be a feature. It began as a short in order to explore the idea and raise money.What made you want to tell this story?
Since 2008, I’ve wanted to do a movie about Somali pirates. I’ve never been so obsessed with something before in my life. I just really wanted to make a movie about pirates.Why are you so obsessed with pirates?
There was a story in the New York Times in which [pirates] captured this Ukrainian tanker with military equipment. The pirates were just young kids. The government quickly discovered this wasn’t some big terrorist organization with a bunch of weapons. It was a bunch of young dudes who didn’t know exactly what they were doing, but they caused this big international incident. The pirates were fucking with people over the phone, since they didn’t know what to do. I was like, That’s what this movie should be about—the guys on the other end of the phone.
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…Or thinks he has something much bigger. When I went to Africa, I realized that’s what it should really be about—this misunderstanding of wealth. People were trying to take everything I had. They were trying to take my money and swindle me every way they could, which was hilarious. I didn’t have any money.Yeah, but you’re also new and shiny to them.
I could totally see why just having the $1,500 to fly to another country would do that. Right there you have more money than they would ever have at one time. With that misunderstanding, we realized we could magnify that with a huge ship. Of course they’d think it’s worth millions of dollars—it’s an enormous ship. The truth is, the ship we filmed on was a piece of shit. It was still in business, but could’ve gone out of business in like a month. Pirates don’t know that when they attack.That misunderstanding of worth is crazy. The pirates are so sheltered from the reality of international shipping that they only act on rumors.
Fuck, some of the ship crew get captured and held for so long. But they’re poor, so no one gives a fuck. They aren’t the people who are going to get all of the attention from the news. There were hostages in Somalia held for 24 months or 36 months. A guy just got out a couple weeks ago who had been there for three years. It’s bonkers.Everything is a compromise. In your film’s case, the compromises never seem to go the protagonist’s way.
That’s how we’re going to advertise the film. It’s a bummer.
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The differences were shown in 1,000,000 different ways while making the movie. When the European actors came on set, they acted like us—like Westerners. They can’t sleep in the same sort of bed others slept in; they need a special bed. They need more time to do everything. It was a crazy culture clash on all levels. Movies are already a hierarchy.What were some differences in people’s approach to making the movie?
One of the most visible ways differences played out was the fact that we shot in Kenya, where Somali’s are immigrants and sort of considered second-class. There was some xenophobia on set. Sometimes some of the Kenyan crew and some of the actors would freak out if a [Somali] said something to them without the appropriate degree of respect. Those are misunderstandings I wouldn’t even be aware of, because they were both speaking a language I couldn’t understand.Did that not knowing ever get you into trouble? Did anything ever shock you?
The whole place feels slippery. Things fall into chaos casually.Being in a vaguely lawless place, on boats constantly…
Being on a boat all of the time is really difficult, because I get seasick. People got seasick all the time.You’re named after a boat, made two movies about boats, and you get seasick?
I like tales of the sea. I don’t think I necessarily wanted to do this because it was at sea, but because I like pirates and they're at sea.Simple enough.
I just had to do it. That’s what I keep forgetting. When I try to over intellectualize why I made the movie, it was really simple: I I was excited and fascinated about piracy in a way I’d never been about anything. My other passion was to make movies. I had to make a movie about pirates. That’s it.Click here to download Fishing Without Nets.Follow Jeff on Twitter.
