Pickerel 9
48 min 57 sec
Ethnographic Documentary
The Olsons run a year-round commercial fishing business. They are descendants of the few first founding fishing families of Gimli. a predominantly Icelandic town set in the heart of Manitoba’s Interlake.
This ethnographic journey settles into a day-in-the-life visual essay but with unexpected results. Working in extreme temperatures dipping below -45C while isolated out on one of Canada’s largest lakes, Pickerel 9 not only observes the raw, harsh conditions of the winter season these local fisherman face, but reflects upon current story-telling technology.
Using a mix of iPhones and GoPros, the story balances poetic documentary with ‘disruptive’ processes. The result is a repurposing of these contemporary storytelling tools, moving them from their associations with quickness and adrenalin -linked imagery that we have become accustomed to, to a slow cinema which gambles on the attention of audience.