I just saw this amusing documentary on the geoduck on PBS.
What is a geoduck?
It's a remarkably phallic-looking clam native to the Northwest of North America.
It's the world's largest burrowing bivalve.
It's a delicacy that can cost $100 a serving in a restaurant in China.
It can weigh up to 20lbs and live 160 years.
It's the mascot of a local hippie college.
It's the object of a quirky obsession by some Northwesterners who go digging for it.
It is pronounced "gooey-duck" based on the word the Nisqually Tribe used, but it's assumed that some East Coast dictionary editor changed the spelling because he thought the original and correct spelling of "goeduck" was a typo.
Anyway, the documentary, is part nature documentary, part food show, part regional documentaty and part Errol Morris style exploration of eccentrics. The main eccentric is Jack Bookey, an eldery gent whose idea of fun is to go digging for geoducks. Geoducks nowadays are mostly found about 30 -to 60 feet below the ocean and harvested by scuba divers. They used to be common on beaches, but were overharvested, so it it takes dedication to be a geoducker. Now the only way to get them is to go on days with exceptionally low tide. It's considered a successful geoduck hunt when you get one and that usually takes all day. During low tide about an inch of geoduck is visible on the surface, so you then have to dig through 3 feet of wet sand to actually get the geoduck. Jack's favorite clamdigging pants are mentioned in his will. When the credits ran I found out the documentary was made by his son.
As for technical quality, it was shot on DV and there a few overexposed shots that are blown-out. It could have benefitted in general from color-correction. The video of the founding faculty of Evergreen College nominating the geoduck as the mascot is seriously deteriorated. However even with all this, it's playing on PBS all over the country.
Content is king. If you have a good story to tell about a phallic-looking clam people will buy it.
P.S. Yes, Grazie you can buy it on DVD.
What is a geoduck?
It's a remarkably phallic-looking clam native to the Northwest of North America.
It's the world's largest burrowing bivalve.
It's a delicacy that can cost $100 a serving in a restaurant in China.
It can weigh up to 20lbs and live 160 years.
It's the mascot of a local hippie college.
It's the object of a quirky obsession by some Northwesterners who go digging for it.
It is pronounced "gooey-duck" based on the word the Nisqually Tribe used, but it's assumed that some East Coast dictionary editor changed the spelling because he thought the original and correct spelling of "goeduck" was a typo.
Anyway, the documentary, is part nature documentary, part food show, part regional documentaty and part Errol Morris style exploration of eccentrics. The main eccentric is Jack Bookey, an eldery gent whose idea of fun is to go digging for geoducks. Geoducks nowadays are mostly found about 30 -to 60 feet below the ocean and harvested by scuba divers. They used to be common on beaches, but were overharvested, so it it takes dedication to be a geoducker. Now the only way to get them is to go on days with exceptionally low tide. It's considered a successful geoduck hunt when you get one and that usually takes all day. During low tide about an inch of geoduck is visible on the surface, so you then have to dig through 3 feet of wet sand to actually get the geoduck. Jack's favorite clamdigging pants are mentioned in his will. When the credits ran I found out the documentary was made by his son.
As for technical quality, it was shot on DV and there a few overexposed shots that are blown-out. It could have benefitted in general from color-correction. The video of the founding faculty of Evergreen College nominating the geoduck as the mascot is seriously deteriorated. However even with all this, it's playing on PBS all over the country.
Content is king. If you have a good story to tell about a phallic-looking clam people will buy it.
P.S. Yes, Grazie you can buy it on DVD.