Kelly Lipscomb is a jack of a lot of trades as he is a producer, writer, business owner and can now add the title of documentarian to his long list of achievements with his latest film, “Bite to Bite” – which played at the 2025 Austin Film Festival on Oct. 25. The film follows a pair of Nova Scotian fishermen as they follow their bluefin tuna to Japan to watch it be sold at the legendary Tsukiji Seafood Market. Through its heartwarming narrative, Lipscomb said he hoped to inform a timeless story about global sustainability and human interaction with the native world. BruinLife’s Gavin Meichelbock sat down with Lipscomb to talk about this new film.
This article has been abbreviated for length and clarity.
BruinLife: What is your connection to bluefin tuna fishing?
Kelly Lipscomb: Originally, I was just a filmmaker on a boat. I was hired by Tag-A-Giant, which is Dr Barbara block … the preeminent bluefin tuna scientist in the world. I was hired to film on their boats years ago and through that process, one of the fishermen and her scientist and a friend of mine, Robbie Haller, had an idea to follow one of these bluefin from where they caught it in Canada to where it would be sold and turned into sushi in Japan.
BL: What was important about telling this story?
KL: It’s a timeless story. I think it’s about conservation and sustainability. It’s not a political film. I’m not an issues based filmmaker, although it follows a species, bluefin tuna, that has a lot of issues around it, so that inherently comes across in the film. But I think it really is a behind the scenes glimpse at the bluefin tuna industry and the greater seafood industry. It shines light on a lot of this world that I don’t think people realize or have seen or experienced.
BL: In the movie, it touches briefly on the fishing parameters in Canada and Japan and how they are different. Could you expand upon how both cultures go about fishing for bluefin tuna?
KL: Canada, because they overfished the bluefin in the 80s and 90s, the government had to enact pretty strict quotas. It went from a heyday for these fishermen, to a strict quota system – they get one fish a year. So, it’s an important fish for them because … it could mean the difference between house payments, buying a new car, putting your kid through college. In Japan, prior to our film, they didn’t have any quotas and a big reason why they had started buying bluefin from Canada back in the 70s was because they had overfished the bluefin tuna around their coasts by that time. After our film was made, I think one of the good things that’s happened since is that Japan has enacted some quotas similar to Canada’s – they’re trying to help regrow the species.
BL: What made you choose a documentary as your filmic medium?
KL: You just fall into things. I’m a filmmaker, I’m a producer, I’m a director, I’m a writer, I’m a business owner. This is just one of the things along the way that I’ve done. I think I’m interested in people ultimately and in characters and in good stories, so I’ve been drawn into a few documentary projects. And this is a great one, it’s something I’m proud of. It took a few years to make and I think it’s a story that has a message for a lot of the issues we’re dealing with around the globe: sustainability, human interactions with the native world. They’re a challenge to make, they don’t usually make much money, but there’s a certain purity to documentary filmmaking. There’s a lot to it and you can make doc films in a lot of ways and ultimately, it’s to get into a world that people might not otherwise see, to tell those stories.
BL: “Bite to Bite” is the story of the fishermen, the tuna itself and a commentary on the global tuna market. How did you balance these three facets?
KL: I didn’t worry about that because I wasn’t trying to present a position in the film. It’s unbalanced in some ways. It’s people coming at it from different directions that have different perspectives and that kind of cork screws around the main journey, the main narrative quest of our characters with their fish. Ultimately, it’s a complex issue. It’s important that the fish remain sustainable. That’s really what led us into the film, was these brilliant scientists, Robbie Schallert and Dr. Barbara Block, catching and tagging… these big fish with these Canadian fishermen. Over time, they developed a working relationship and it’s been to the benefit of the species and that’s the big takeaway… science and industry can work together productively.
BL: Is there a topic you wish you could have fleshed out more in the film?
KL: I could go on and on about the industry, but it’s one film and you can only do so much in one film. The more controversial side and the fishing in other parts of the world are still uncontrolled. I think you could get into a pretty, pretty gnarly extension of the storylines, into some of these places off the coast of Mexico and some other spots around the globe. [The story’s] constantly evolving … with or without me. I told my little slice of it.
BL: Anything you’d like readers to know about your film and your mission?
KL: If your audience is kids in college that are studying film… I’d give them the advice that folks here at the [University of Texas Austin] Film School didn’t give me back in the day – just go out, get some production assistant jobs. Haul coffee, haul butt around. Keep your mouth shut and smile and love it. Soak it up. Meet people. Learn what you want to do in the industry… because it truly is who you know – I think that’s what it’s all about.
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Featured Image Courtesy of Cher Culver