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Contact: Laura Orleans, 508-993-8894 New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park News Release Media Contact: Laura Orleans, Director, Working Waterfront Festival Work, Identity and Community Considered in Downeast Friday, November 16 New Bedford, Mass. - The Dock-U-Mentaries Film Series continues Friday, November 16th at 7 PM with Downeast. Dock-U-Mentaries is a co-production of New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park and the Working Waterfront Festival. Films about the working waterfront are screened on the third Friday of each month beginning at 7:00 PM in the theater of the Corson Maritime Learning Center, located at 33 William Street in downtown New Bedford. All programs are open to the public and presented free of charge. The film unfolds over the course of a year-and-a-half in the small lobster village of Prospect Harbor, Maine. A few months after the closing of the last remaining sardine cannery in the United States, Boston-based entrepreneur Antonio Bussone purchases the plant, hoping to establish a lobster processing facility and rehire the laid-off sardine workers. Antonio's troubles begin from the day he arrives. During a town-hall meeting, local politicians oppose his vision of rebuilding the factory. Undeterred, Antonio moves forward, determined to build and operate one of the first lobster factories in the United States. Downeast premiered at the 2012 Tribeca Film Festival and has been well received. Eric Kohn of Indiewire called it "a highly contained, personable work that renders vast industrial problems on a profoundly intimate scale." The Working Waterfront Festival is a project of the Community Economic Development Center of Southeastern MA, a non-profit organization. The free festival, a family friendly, educational celebration of New England's commercial fishing industry, features live maritime and ethnic music, fishermen's contests, fresh seafood, vessel tours, author readings, cooking demonstrations, kid's activities and more. It all takes place on working piers and waterfront parks in New Bedford, MA, America's #1 fishing port, on the last full weekend in September, this year on September 29 and 30. www.workingwaterfrontfestival.org. New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park was established by Congress in 1996 to help preserve and interpret America's nineteenth century whaling industry. The park, which encompasses a 13-block National Historic Landmark District, is the only National Park Service area addressing the history of the whaling industry and its influence on the economic, social, and environmental history of the United States. The National Park visitor center is located at 33 William Street in downtown New Bedford. It is open seven days a week, from 9 AM-5 PM, and offers information, exhibits, and a free orientation movie every hour on the hour from 10 AM-3 PM. For more information, call the visitor center at 508-996-4095, go to www.nps.gov, or visit the park's Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/NBWNHP -NPS- |
Last updated: February 26, 2015