The documentary celebrates a Palmetto tradition and a hometown hero. It bows this Saturday at the Sarasota Film Festival.
By Johannes Werner
Original Air Date: April 8, 2026
Host: The 2026 Sarasota Film Festival kicks off this Friday, and “Fish Fry & Fellowship” is among the locally made documentaries that will bow on Saturday. One of the main characters of the film is a hometown hero in Palmetto, and he just passed away at the age of 104. Johannes Werner talked to the filmmakers.
Still shots from the film’s trailer
V.O. 1: Good morning, everybody, and welcome to St. Andrews AME Church’s Family Fish Fry & Fellowship.
V.O. 2: Since I’ve been out here, I’ve never heard an argument or nothing; never heard a swear word or nothing; nobody never threatens anybody. It’s just like, friends, we’re coming together, and we have a good time.
Johannes Werner: That’s from the trailer of “Fish Fry & Fellowship”.
The fish fry goes back many years—and so does the film about it. For decades, every last Friday of the month, St. Andrews AME Church in Palmetto has held up the tradition. Charles Williams, a retired judge, is one of the forces behind the film.
Charles Williams: The community itself is very special because it’s small. Most people do know each other, even Black and white, because the community is so small. So it’s a special place because it’s also very friendly. This fish fry has been going on at St. Andrews AME Church for many years, and it was by chance that I went with Durand Adams—he’s one of the co-producers of the film—and I just noticed that there were all these people that were sitting under a tree while one person was preparing all this fish, and then there would be a line of cars that would start coming in around 10:00 in the morning, and the amazing thing about it was that there was one person preparing the fish, Moody Johnson, but all these people who were gathering together—Black and white, male and female—and most of the time, they were just sort-of watching him fry the fish, and I’m sitting there with Durand and we’re having these great conversations, and I looked at him, and I said, “This would be a great documentary. We should film this.”
The fellowship is really what makes the film and makes the fish fry. People come for the fish—it’s great—but a lot of people come just for the fellowship and the friendship and to swap stories, and what’s really amazing about what happens at that fish fry—many of these people are in their 60’s, 70’s and 80’s, and because of segregation, they were never able to be friends when they were in high school or middle school, so they’re making up for a lot of lost time. That’s sort-of the theme of the film: but for segregation, they would’ve been childhood friends.
JW: Paul and Petra Ratner met with Charles Williams and Durand Adams in 2022, and that’s when the project to make a film about the tradition began to take shape. They gathered footage over many events during three-and-half years. Paul Ratner:
Paul Ratner: We’ve been going there for many of these Fridays over these years. Some people will come on one day, other people will on another day. There are definitely regulars who come every single time. We would try to hang out and talk to people and capture the experience.
JW: It became a family affair. Even the Ratners’ now four-year old child grew up on set. Petra Ratner:
Petra Ratner: Beginning of the film, when we started, I was pregnant, and at the end of the film, we have now almost a four-year-old. The community knows the little guy. He was coming always with us. He was always there. He was there for every filming.
Paul Ratner: Yeah. He was a fish fry baby.
Petra Ratner: Yeah. Fish fry baby.
Coach Eddie Shannon | still shot Fish Fry
JW: There was a birth during the film, and now there’s a death. Coach Eddie Shannon passed away last week at age 104. He was the longtime head football coach of Palmetto’s all-Black Lincoln Memorial High School, who later transferred to Manatee High School during forced integration, and that was a cornerstone of the film and of a previous documentary by Williams and Adams titled “Through the Tunnel.”
CW: He sort-of inspired me to get into films because the first documentary that I was associated with was his story about him coaching a then segregated high school, Lincoln Memorial High School.
Paul Ratner: Very sad. He was just so full of life and such an amazing character. Meeting him was a real privilege. It was amazing to see how beloved he was by the community. Everyone at the fish fry really loved him, and there’s a lot of folks at the fish fry who played for him back in the ‘60s. There was this one moment I very much feel like I will remember my whole life when he actually came to the fish fry, because we interviewed him back at his place, but one day he came—was driven up—and it was just such a joy for everyone to see him there.
JW: “Fish Fry & Fellowship” will be screened this Saturday, 2 pm at the Sainer Pavilion of New College. It begins with an actual fish fry at 1:00 p.m with the filmmakers and some of the protagonists of the film.
Coach Eddie Shannon | still shot Fish Fry
It’s among several local and Florida-made films that will bow at the festival. There will be a series of Florida-made shorts on Saturday, 5:30 pm at Suncoast Technical College.
Sarasota filmmaker K T Curran—who now lives and works in LA—will present “Call It What it Is,” a film about bullying at schools, this Saturday noon, at Ringling College of Art & Design’s Morganroth Auditorium.
You’ll also have a chance to tune in to K T Curran this coming Monday, 9 am, when she will be interviewed on WSLR’s ArtBeat.
And Sunday at 2 pm, also at Ringling College, there will be a screening of “Fighting for Florida,” a documentary about protecting Florida’s waters.
For more information, go to sarasotafilmfestival.com.
Reporting for WSLR News, Johannes Werner.
WSLR News aims to keep the local community informed with our 1/2 hour local news show, quarterly newspaper and social media feeds. The local news broadcast airs on Wednesdays and Fridays at 6pm.