Anna MacDonald on Filming the Elusive Elver Amid a Shifting Landscape

Filming fishermen working on dark Gloucestershire waterways at night is challenging enough technically for most cinematographers. But this feat, brought off with panache by “The Elvermen” DP Anna MacDonald – competing in the Camerimage Documentary Shorts section this year with an atmospheric account of obsessive amateur eel hunters – was just half the battle. A substantial additional challenge, says MacDonald, is that the eels in question, a catch once prized at more than their weight in gold, are tiny, nearly transparent offspring “like the size of a glass noodle.” They’ve been known as elvers for millennia and just about everything… Read Full Article