Seaspiracy

A documentary built around fishing. Ali Tabrizi has loved the sea since childhood. He sets out to make a film about plastic pollution. Then he changes direction. He goes to a whaling area in Japan and is followed there by the police. From there the film becomes a series of stops. Shark fin in Taiwan, dolphins in France, salmon farms in Scotland, boats in Thailand and coastal fishing in West Africa. The documentary builds an argument. The real problem at sea is not plastic straws but industrial fishing; discarded nets make up a large share of the plastic pollution. The certificates are a target too. The director goes to the bodies that issue sustainable fishing labels and asks how the auditing is done; the answers he gets are the film's most effective section. There is a line about slavery as well. Workers held on boats off Thailand are interviewed and the narrative connects there. What the narrative is interested in is not the environment but a system: it seeks the problem not in consumer behaviour but in the industry itself and the bodies that oversee it. Its recommendation is single. Stop eating fish. And that is what it was most criticised for. After release it was written that some of the figures it used were out of date and taken out of context; several of those interviewed said their words had been misused. The method is contested. The narrative often turns into a personal horror story and gives the other side very little room. The production was made for Netflix and was widely argued about the week it appeared. Ali Tabrizi directed and narrates. Who it is for: anyone who has never thought about industrial fishing. Who it is not for: anyone expecting rigour about sources; several of the film's claims were disputed and it should be watched knowing that.