Patagonia celebrates the ‘Art of Activism’ in story of local resilience
The outdoor brand’s nine-minute film tells the story of an Italian fisherman and his fight against deep-sea trawlers.
Patagonia has released ‘The Art of Activism,’ a short film exploring the story of a fisherman and his local community in Tuscany, Italy. The story explores the harm done by bottom trawling to marine areas, showing how individual action can help protect the seas.
It follows from the outdoor brand’s announcement earlier this year that, going forward, it will hand over all profits (about $100m a year) to fight the climate emergency. This move was hailed as a landmark moment, setting a benchmark for corporate sustainability.
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In the nine-minute film, made in collaboration with Pop-Up Magazine, Italian fisherman Paolo Fanciulli tries everything to stop deep-sea trawlers from harming his beloved Mediterranean ecosystem. He protests, and even impersonates a police officer, but nothing works.
“Trawling is not a sustainable way of fishing. These chains drag across the seabed... It’s like a hunter burning down the entire forest to kill one boar,” Paolo says. “Day by day, the underwater meadows of Posidonia and corals are being destroyed – whole hectares of sea.”
As a solution, Paolo approached artists to create sculptures that would not only stop trawling, but eventually create an underwater museum in the Mediterranean Sea.
Paolo adds: “Every day I host people on my boat. I tell them this story. I involve these people in this story. The life of the seas starts from the seabed.”