Tommy Pallotta went to Somalia to make his film about pirates, The Last Hijack

Going to Somalia to make a film about pirates wasn’t the easiest assignment for Tommy Pallotta, writes Ed Power

EVERYBODY told Tommy Pallotta he was crazy to want to go to Africa and shoot a documentary about Somali pirates. In the end, the respected director found himself in agreement.

“Originally, the situation in Somalia wasn’t that bad and the plan was for me to be there, personally,” says the Texas filmmaker, best known for his collaborations with Richard Linklater (he was a producer of Linklater’s acclaimed animated features Waking Life and A Scanner Darkly).