The Pirate Tapes

The Pirate Tapes is a documentary filmed by Somali-Canadian Mohamed Ashareh in Somalia and edited and produced by Palmira PDC in Canada.^[1] The film follows Ashareh, as he infiltrates a Somali pirate operation, giving a first person view of how they recruit and organize. The documentary premiered at the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival in 2011.^[2] It was picked up for distribution by HBO Documentary Films.^[3]

The Pirate Tapes
Directed by	Andrew Moniz Rock Baijnauth
Production companies	Palmira PDC, Telestro, Filmic Entertainment
Distributed by	HBO Documentary Films (US)
Release date	May 1, 2011 (2011-05-01) (Hot Docs International)
Running time	72 minutes
Countries	Canada Somalia
Language	English

The Plot

Ashareh lives undercover with pirates in Somalia for months during 2009, filming their activities with a small camera hanging around his neck.^[2][4] Some of the filming was done by a second cameraman. Ashareh was frequently in danger, and at one point they were both arrested and spent time in a Somali jail.^[5]

Reception

The film has been heavily criticized for shortcomings attributed to Ashereh's lack of journalistic and filming experience.^[4][6] There has also been a dispute between Ashareh and Palmira PDC over the rights to the footage filmed by Ashereh.^[1] Andrew Moniz of Palmira PDC maintains the contracts "clearly" state Palmira would own the footage.^[7]