Something Different 69

I had a different post prepared and queued up for today, but then I watched one of the most recent episodes of Sal Mercogliano’s  “What the Ship…” and saw a 37-minute interview Sal did with Madeleine Wolczko, a US merchant mariner currently stuck in a shipyard in Shanghai.  That remarkable interview led me to an even more remarkable 31-minute documentary that I’ve linked to the image below.  Click on the image and the video will play.

Take it from me, watching these two videos will be the most impression-making 68 minutes you spend today, maybe this whole week.  I’d suggest watching the interview first and the documentary second.  If you’ve never been aboard a container ship, and this is a US-flagged one, this will give you a sense of who works on a ship, what spaces on a ship look like, what crew do, and in this instance, what they can be subjected to.  Technical quality may not be Academy-award standard, but the the rawness, sincerity, and power make up for that.  I give it the winner of the Tugster Academy Award in the category of “best short documentary made while facing adversity,”  clap please but no slapping.

Sal’s interview ends with the mariner performing a moving rendition of Radiohead’s “Creep” in the silent hold of a US container ship.  The hold is cavernous, dramatically lit, and silent because all work has ceased because of an extreme response to the most recent Covid outbreak in Shanghai.

If you choose, click the “thumbs up” on “Restricted to Ship, Ep. 1 – Shanghai Lockdown.”