Educational Media Reviews Online

This relatively short though efficient film follows an anthropology grad student throughout his year of field research in order to capture a bit of the emotions, frustrations, and breakthroughs that graduate students often face when conducting field research, particularly of an ethnographic nature.

Joonas Plaan, an anthropology PhD student from Estonia, is doing his field research on the fisheries and fishermen in the picturesque village of Bay de Verde in Newfoundland, Canada. Having grown up around fisheries in Estonia, he was drawn to do research in Newfoundland, a center of the fishing industry. Specifically, Plaan is interested to learn how climate change is affecting the culture of a traditional fishing village. He immerses himself in the daily lives of the villagers and struggles to gain their trust but succeeds by using a variety of methods including working as a hand on a boat and chatting up everybody in the street, the grocery stores, and the bingo hall. His principal revelation is that insights and understandings only come with persistence, sticking around.

Though the content of his research is secondary to the depiction of the day to day activities of Plaan, the changing culture of the town is evident. A ban on cod fishing and other conservation efforts at the state level have had a devastating effect on the village with much of the population leaving.

The film was produced by another anthropologist, George Gmelch, presumably Plaan’s PhD advisor, and filmmaker Dennis Lanson.

For academic libraries serving anthropology departments, this is highly recommended. It is also recommended for general interest, particularly around coastal communities.

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