The Hunt for Moby-Dick: a feature-length BBC documentary, written and presented by Philip Hoare, author of The Whale. Filmed over five years, in Provincetown, Nantucket, New Bedford, Western Massachusetts and the Azores, this provocative film examines the story behind the writing of Herman Melville’s extraordinary novel of 1851. Philip Hoare follows in Melville’s footsteps, to ask how the over-arching shape and reality of the whale inspired a great work of literature, and still reflects our modern love for animals which we once exploited. Melville’s book remains a prophetic work, addressing notions of adventure, extinction, evil and good. He wrote of the whale, ‘I know him not, and never will’. The Hunt for Moby-Dick asks, Are we still ignorant of what whales mean to us? And what light can literature shed on the vexed relationship between human and whale.
The screening of the film at the Truro Public Library, May 5 at 6 pm, to benefit the Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies and the Truro Historical Society, follows and celebrates Provincetown Library’s first-ever marathon reading of Moby-Dick. The screening will be followed by a panel discussion and Q&A with Philip Hoare and other contributors. Donations to the Truro Historical Society and the Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies are encouraged.
Center for Coastal Studies
Truro Public Library