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August 22: Rooftop Films and The Fledgling Fund present “The End of the Line”

Imagine an ocean without fish. Imagine your meals without seafood. Imagine the global consequences.

Venue: The Beach at Governor’s Island

Address: On the beach along the water on Governor’s Island, just to the West of the Ferry landing

Directions: Boats will leave every 15 minutes from the Battery Maritime Building Slip 7 on the Southern Tip of Manhattan, located next to the Staten Island Ferry Terminal. Take the 1 at South Ferry, W at South Ferry, or 5 at Bowling Green.

Rain: There is a covered tent area and the show goes on rain or shine.

8:00PM: Doors open
8:30PM: Sound Fix presents live music by The Red Hook Ramblers
9:00PM: Film

Tickets: $12 online or at the door

Presented in partnership with: The Fledgling Fund, Cinereach & New York magazine

Rooftop Films returns to the beautiful shores of Governor’s Island for a special screening. Next Saturday, August 22nd, hop on the New York Water Taxi Ferry from lower Manhattan and in a few short minutes you will be on The Beach at Governor’s Island. This unique venue has quickly become New York’s premier live outdoor venue, resting on the coast of the New York Harbor, providing stunning views of Lower Manhattan. The Beach isn’t just a venue; it’s an experience. Governors Island, in the heart of New York Harbor, is only 800 yards from Lower Manhattan, and even closer to Brooklyn, but once along the beach on the Island, you feel transported to another place. If not for the amazing view across the river, it would be hard to believe that you are just a five minute boat ride from Manhattan.

And we couldn’t think of a better place to screen Rupert Murray’s new documentary. The End of the Line is the first major feature documentary film revealing the impact of overfishing on our oceans. In the film we see firsthand the effects of our global love affair with fish as food. It examines the imminent extinction of bluefin tuna, brought on by increasing western demand for sushi; the impact on marine life resulting in huge overpopulation of jellyfish; and the profound implications of a future world with no fish that would bring certain mass starvation.

Living in the U.S., we take for granted our very diverse diet, our countless sources of nourishment. But throughout the world, more than one billion people rely on fish as their primary source of protein. For millennia this has not been a problem, as seafaring and coastal communities have thought of the earth’s vast oceans as an inexhaustible source of nutrition. But with the rapid refinement of mass industrial fishing techniques, the widespread assumption that the sea’s bounty has no bounds has led to some alarming developments. Some environmental groups argue that as much as 90% of the fish population in the entire world has been fished out and consumed, and an international group of ecologists and economists warn that the world may run out of seafood by 2048 threatening the most important source of food for more than 250 million people. If current trends are not reversed, the over-fishing of the ocean could lead to ecological disaster and mass starvation and malnutrition for hundreds of millions of people—and this calamity may be approaching much more rapidly than most of the world would ever imagine.

Filmed over two years, The End of the Line follows the investigative reporter Charles Clover as he confronts politicians and celebrity restaurateurs, who exhibit little regard for the damage they are doing to the oceans. One of his allies is the former tuna farmer turned whistleblower Roberto Mielgo – on the trail of those destroying the world’s magnificent bluefin tuna population. Filmed across the world – from the Straits of Gibraltar to the coasts of Senegal and Alaska to the Tokyo fish market – featuring top scientists, indigenous fishermen and fisheries enforcement officials, The End of the Line is a wake-up call to the world.

But The End of the Line is not merely an alarming documentation of ecological irresponsibility. Working with organizations around the world to promote responsible fishing, The End of the Line explains that the responsibility lies squarely on consumers who innocently buy endangered fish, politicians who ignore the advice and pleas of scientists, fishermen who break quotas and fish illegally, and the global fishing industry that is slow to react to an impending disaster. The End of the Line points to solutions that are simple and doable, but political will and activism are crucial to solve this international problem. We need to control fishing by reducing the number of fishing boats across the world, protect large areas of the ocean through a network of marine reserves off limits to fishing, and educate consumers that they have a choice by purchasing fish from independently certified sustainable fisheries.

Rooftop Films and The Fledgling Fund’s screening of The End of the Line is part of a global campaign for citizens to demand better marine policies. Leading international environmental organizations are lending their full support to the film.

The End of the Line will be released worldwide in 2009 using multiple formats and venues including theaters, broadcast and cable television networks, film festivals, online video campaigns, aquariums, museums and special screenings for environmental and educational organizations. We will be distributing wallet-sized fish guides to the audience which help consumers to find out what fish they should and should not be eating, the greater the chance that we can turn the tide of destruction caused by over fishing.

Directed by Rupert Murray (Unknown White Male), The End of the Line is dynamic, visually stunning, and swiftly told. In addition to alerting us to the emergency of over-fishing, the film also captures the beauty of the ocean and its inhabitants, and there is no better place for it to screen than along the beautiful Beach at Governor’s Island.