Leonard: Yeah, the thing is that they have to go every year more up north to find the herring, until they will come into Norwegian territory, and they are not allowed to fish there. But I understand why this happens because when they treat the fish like they do in the film, just dumping it if they have too much — and the fish are already dead — then of course, next year you have less, and every year it becomes less and less.

GALO: There are quite a few scenes toward the end of the documentary during which the fishermen and families taste raw herring. Like in many European countries, I assume this isn’t surprising, but something of a delicacy. Did you yourselves take a bite of the raw herring straight from the day’s catch?

Hetty: Of course! I love herring! I ate eight or nine herrings at a time [laughs].

GALO: I’m assuming the taste was so much better than what one can get at the fish market [chuckles].

Hetty: The taste when you catch the herring — in Holland it’s called the “new herring” — that’s the best. It’s like heaven on your tongue.

GALO: Probably melts almost…

Hetty: Yeah, it melts on your tongue.

Leonard: Yeah, literally. Actually, in order to eat it, you have to let it rot for one day, and then it tastes best.

Hetty: Yeah, you don’t smell it though.

GALO: Singing and drinking seem to be quite a common form of entertainment during the time that the fishermen are on the ship. How else did they entertain themselves? And what about the children?

Leonard: Most of the time they were just playing computer games. I have some nice scenes with it but we had to choose which scenes to use, and we finally just decided to take the scenes directly related to herring or fishing. But yeah, the children played computer games and the fishermen they have their videos. Not many books [chuckles]; they had a Bible.

Hetty: Yeah, and there is e-mail onboard or rather the Internet, so the children sent e-mails every day to their mothers.

GALO: When you weren’t filming, did you help in catching the herring or with any chores or production on the boat?

Hetty: No, no. This is really a boat and it’s very tough, it’s all men who know exactly what to do, so in this case they already knew that the film crew would come. But the film crew couldn’t really help because this was really the fishermen’s job, it is very technical. So, the crew could only film and film.

Leonard: Yeah, they wouldn’t even let me.

GALO: Is there a reason why you didn’t include any interviews with the fishermen?

Leonard: That’s not my style. I think in documentary films, interviews are really bad because people can lie, and I want to show the reality through the emotion, so I want to see what is happening. And if you do interviews like some of those reality shows, it can be quite terrible, especially the reflective interviews. If you ask what I hate most in the world, it’s that. Interviews themselves are OK, but not having people doing it in a reflective way.

GALO: Yes, it can be sort of scripted then and it loses something in the process.

Leonard: Yeah, it loses a lot. When there are no reflective interviews, you feel close to the people because you experience things with them instead of them talking about it, because that makes it distant.

Hetty: Yeah, it depends on the subject. In terms of interviews, the film I am making at the moment, it’s all interviews, but it’s totally different as these are people who didn’t speak for 70 years and they have opened up to me only. But that’s totally different.

Leonard: Yeah, of course. For instance, in terms of what happened with WWII, many people were not there, and people reflecting on it after so many years is very interesting. And it is also very good. Those are the kind of interviews I like.

GALO: What are you planning next in terms of documentaries?

Leonard: At the moment I am at NYU researching camera movements and especially for 3D, so we are going to make something with 3D, using camera movements to narrate the story. The use of camera movements is something which is very much underestimated in film and not done right, because camera movements are mostly a slave of editing. I use camera movements as an art form in itself. After that, you can decide how to use editing. It’s a completely different approach, and it’s what I want to also use in this 3D film that we’re planning to make as our next step.

Hetty: The editing of single shot cinema is totally different and it asks more from the editor — that he understand the language of the single shot cinema, and we are very glad, Leonard and me, that we found in my son Jasper, who really understands the single shot cinema and the style, a great editor. He [previously] edited the [film] Position among the Stars, and now with this film, Raw Herring, he also proved that he can really edit single shot cinema. And actually, he is editing the traditional documentary which I am making at the moment. I am finishing a traditional documentary which will be released in September in Holland in more than 20 theatres. So he knows both, editing single shot cinema and editing the traditional way of filming. But Leonard and I are also preparing this 3D feature fiction documentary with single shot cinema.

GALO: Can you share what the subject matter will be of this 3D film or is it too soon to reveal the topic?

Leonard: It’s actually a poker game. It’s very static you would think because people are sitting together at a table and they’re playing this game. And there are many films done on poker games, but I know how to shoot it in a completely different way than ever done before, going much deeper into the characters and into what they’re doing and what their strategy is — into their soul.

“Raw Herring” premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York City on April 18.

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