Film / News
Bristol production is the only UK film selected for Berlinale Forum
Hand-crafted using a 1976 Bolex camera and 16mm Kodak monochrome film stock, Mark Jenkin’s Bait is a narratively unconventional story of structural change in a picturesque fishing village in Cornwall. This is the first feature from Totterdown’s Early Day Films, founded by BAFTA winning producers Kate Byers and Linn Waite. It has just got off to a flying start by becoming the only UK film selected for this month’s Berlinale Forum – the section of the prestigious Berlin International Film Festival devoted to experimental and documentary filmmakers, whose work is screened out of competition. Bait receives its world premiere at the festival on February 9.
Bait director Mark Jenkin
Here’s the official synopsis: “Martin Ward is a cove fisherman, without a boat. His brother Steven has re-purposed their father’s vessel as a tourist tripper, driving a wedge between the brothers. With their childhood home now a getaway for London money, Martin is displaced to the estate above the picturesque harbour. As his struggle to restore the family to their traditional place creates increasing friction with tourists and locals alike, a tragedy at the heart of the family changes his world.”
https://vimeo.com/313158047
is needed now More than ever
Bait was shot on location in Charlestown and around the Penzance area over four weeks in late September/October 2017, using a small local crew. In their producers’ statement, Kate and Linn stress the film’s topicality at a time when the nation has become bitterly divided:
Producers Linn Waite and Kate Byers of Totterdown’s Early Day Films
“Bait demands we pay attention to the divides within today’s society and what’s at stake when people cannot see eye to eye. On the microcosmic level, this is a story of how a family falls apart and stitches itself back together. In the wider landscape, Bait is about class, and the debate of who belongs where. It’s an argument growing out of a seemingly petty day-to-day issue of parking, escalating to tragedy.
“Under the gathering clouds of Brexit, set in the heart of a fishing village where gentrification has a huge impact forcing tourists, incomers and locals to go head to head. It’s story that leaves us clinging to a hope that family and a sense of place will overcome.”
Bait is due to go on general release in 2020
.
Our top newsletters emailed directly to you
