The Hunt

The Hunt is the first feature length documentary to explore from the inside the increasingly sensitive, complex and fascinating world of English foxhunting set against the background of public outcry for the banning of this sport.


Feature documentary about an English foxhunt against the backdrop of growing public resistance. Foxhunting in the United Kingdom started in the mid 18th Century. There are now some 200 hunts with a total of 250.000 subscribers and supporters. Every week of the season 500 hunt meets take place and some 15,000 people are employed by it. The sight of horse riders in redcoats and a pack of hounds meeting outside an elegant country house has become a quintessential image of traditional, rural England. But inside and outside Britain foxhunting is a contested event: the hunting fraternity wants to maintain it as a living and vibrant part of rural life, the animal rights lobby insists that foxhunting is a barbaric practice, which should have no place in the modern world.

The Hunt follows the Ludlow Hunt in mid-England during a full season. Never before has a film team been given this complete access. The resulting documentary both shocks and is at times also very moving. It shows events badly captured on tape by the Animal Rights Activists and contested by the pro-Hunting lobby, like the shooting of redundant hounds, the digging out and killing of foxes.

Supported by a resonant score this observational documentary will baffle you by its honesty, its superb photography, its full stereo soundtrack and its controversial images, more and more the issue of a political battle.

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Director: NIEK KOPPEN

Producer: KEES RYNINKS

Credits: Photography Chris Cox / Sound Alastair Widgery / Editor Erik Disselhoff / Composer Stephen Daltry / Research/Associate Producer Garry Marvin

A Ryninks Films production in co-production with NPS Television.

Made with the participation of The Dutch Film Fund, The Dutch Cultural Broadcasting Fund, The CoBO Fund and DOCUMENTARY, an initiative of the MEDIA Programme of the European Union.

Sales Agent: Films Transit Inc. Email: info@filmstransit.com

Sold to: BBC, NHK, Arte / LaSept, STV, NRK Denmark, Finland, Poland, Canada, Belgium, Spain, Sundance Channel.

Versions: English with Dutch subtitles, colour, 60 or 90 minutes.

Copyright: Ryninks Holding BV/NPS 1997


Prix Italia 1999
Newport International Film Festival 1999
Special Mention San Francisco Film Festival 1998

Nominations:
VPRO/Joris Ivens Award, IDFA ’97
BAFTA Award 1998
Dutch Film Award, Utrecht 1998

 

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