“Before You Eat” Released Globally, Greenpeace Indonesia: New Chapter of The Fight For Justice In The Fisheries Industry

Jakarta, May 13, 2024 – The commemoration of International Labour Day on May 1 and World Tuna Day on May 2 this year became an important moment for the Indonesian Migrant Workers Union (SBMI) to celebrate the international release of the documentary film “Before You Eat” Director’s Cut. The documentary was produced by SBMI and supported by Greenpeace Indonesia.

The documentary film “Before You Eat” Director’s Cut has been launched globally via its landing page, www.beforeyoueat.id. After successfully reaching more than 5,000 viewers through a series of offline screenings throughout 2022 with the original version of the film “Before You Eat” (BYE) in Indonesia, the director’s cut version was created to reach more audiences throughout the world.

The main difference between the initial version of the BYE film and the director’s cut version is the duration – from 97 minutes to 47 minutes. Nevertheless, these two films still have the same goal, namely increasing public awareness about the reported human rights violations and environmental damage occurring on the high seas due to the activities of players in the global fishing industry. BYE Director’s Cut is a participatory storytelling endeavour that shares firsthand   experiences by a number of migrant fishing crew members.

This film, produced by SBMI, is supported by Greenpeace Indonesia in its distribution and public campaign activities. This is because, as an environmental organization, one that is engaged in ocean protection efforts, Greenpeace Indonesia places high importance on the grave issues being reported by migrant fishers, and on offering our support and platform to help them as they seek to improve things in the fishing industry. This is because the majority of reported human rights violations against crew members occur on long-distance fishing vessels, which are also reported to  carry out illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing practices (IUU fishing). These practices are well documented to damage marine ecosystems.

Since BYE Director’s Cut was completed in October 2023, the film has been screened at a number of public events in Indonesia, Taiwan and the United States – through activities initiated and organized respectively by SBMI, Greenpeace Indonesia, Greenpeace Taiwan and Greenpeace USA.

SBMI Chairman, Hariyanto Suwarno:

“Without focusing on specific countries or fishing companies that were involved in the practice of violating the human rights of migrant crew members, this film attempts to depict the reality behind the global fishing industry. And by making the film BYE Director’s Cut available to watch online streaming, this is a rare opportunity where fellow migrant fishers have a platform so that their stories can be heard by audiences all over the world. The more people know their story, the greater our fight will be to end the practice of slavery at sea and illegal fishing.”

Director Kasan Kurdi:

“I was inspired to make this film because I was ‘disturbed’ by the irony of the story of migrant fishers at the high sea. On the one hand they work to ‘feed’ world seafood consumers, on the other hand they also have to feed their families. This condition apparently has not changed much after 2-3 years since the original version of the BYE film was produced. And I am sure that the core message of the film BYE and BYE Director’s Cut will always be relevant for a very long time.”

Global Project Lead, Beyond Seafood Campaign, Greenpeace Southeast Asia, Arifsyah Nasution:

“This is a new chapter in our years of strategic joint campaign work with SBMI to enhance justice, sustainability and transparency in the global seafood industry. Since we joined hands with SBMI for this campaign almost a decade ago, we’ve had the honor to amplify the voices of Indonesian migrant fishers while SBMI does advocacy work for them in the field. Together we’ve been pushing for better regulations for Indonesian migrant fishers’ protections. We are inspired by the courage of all fishers that shared their stories, as well as with the tenacious determination of  SBMI to continue to push for this film to be seen by more people around the world. Hopefully it will also continue to inspire many audiences and those joining the fishers movement to push for real change in ending slavery at sea and IUU fishing globally.”[ ]

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