British director Jenny Finlay (Your fat friend, Seahorse, Orion: The man who would be king, Hip Hop’s Greatest Hoax) has made a name for herself as a creator who gives voice to the voiceless and tells cinematic stories about people who may not be commonly seen or heard on screens, big and small. Her new documentary, All rivers pour their stories into the seano different.
The film had its world premiere in F:ACT competition for the 23rd edition of CPH:DOX, the Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival, on March 17, taking audiences to her native Teesside in north-east England to delve into a David and Goliath story of epic proportions.
“Fisherman Stan Rennie has worked the same stretch of coast, where the river meets the sea, for more than 50 years; the trade has been in his family for centuries,” the film’s synopsis reads. “So, when a massive wave of poisoned crabs and lobsters sweeps ashore like a biblical plague in the wake of a new Brexit-fueled development along the same coastline, Stan’s world is turned upside down overnight. Will the sins of the industrial past return to haunt the present?”
While fighting for the survival of his business, he must also deal with his declining health, making his life a battle for the future. In the process, Stan becomes the unlikely figure of a grassroots campaign to uncover all kinds of uncomfortable truths and find strength in the community, driven by a local brand of heart, determination and a good portion of gallows humor.
The film is directed by Finley, produced by Finley and Charlie Phillips, with cinematography by Finley and Mark Bushnell. All rivers pour their stories into the sea Edited by Nicole Halova.
Ahead of the film’s world premiere, Finley spoke to THR About what drives her compassion and desire to shine a light on communities unaccustomed to having a public voice, why she so often becomes the subject of “Poverty Safaris,” what she’s learned about sailing fishing boats, and what’s next for her.
The director learned about the story of the dead crustaceans through her mother. “My mum swims in the North Sea three times a week,” says Finlay. THR. “I wouldn’t call her a protester. She’s not an activist. But we had a shared folder of pictures on my phone of her, of me and my brothers, and she posted these pictures of the protest with some signs saying: ‘Why did the cancers die?’ And I was just wondering: What on earth is going on?”
She started looking into it and became very interested. “It felt like a very local story with international significance,” Finley explains. “And I can see it as a movie. This is my tenth movie, and I realized I really wanted to tell this story.”
Later, she met the fishermen and found their personalities and voices attractive. “It’s been a privilege. The fishing community has been very open to me,” says the documentarian THR. “It’s a male-dominated world, but it was so exciting to shoot with these guys and get to know Stan over four years and learn so much.”
Finley even has some directing experience. “One of the first times we went out on the boat, he made me drive the fishing boat,” she says with a smile. “So now I can drive a fishing boat, even if it’s not very good.”
Delving deeper into local communities and issues is something she loves to do. “I really like films that are very local, really distinct, that have their own language, a sense of humor, and a strong sense of identity,” shares the documentarian. “I believe in micro-filmmaking. The more special you make something, the more universal and more accessible it becomes for the audience.”
He was All rivers pour their stories into the sea Special, given that she grew up in the area? “There’s an emotional element for me when I make a film in the Northeast, because it’s my home, it’s where I grew up,” Finlay says. “And this is where I made my third feature in 2011 which was my breakout feature – Sound outabout the last surviving record store on Teesside.
When she made this film, she learned a lot and has continued to apply it to her projects ever since. “Often, the stories we are told about places far from London are often caricatures,” says Finley. THR. “They are poverty safari. The reaction to.” Sound out is that this movie wasn’t much like that.
After all, she wants the people in her documents to feel properly represented. “It’s really important to me to make a film that Stan and his family know and that shows the journey they’ve been on and reflects that fairly,” she explains. “Often, the people who shout the loudest get the most space in our conversations in the media, and one of the things I’ve always tried to do in my films is pass the baton to people who might not otherwise have the opportunity to amplify. I’m interested in small, intimate stories, and through the process of filming, [bring them to] Huge movie screen.”
So, for her, it’s all about representation and “challenging common narratives,” Finley points out, “because films can be a way in which we move around the world. When I was growing up on Teesside, going to the cinema every week was a window into a much bigger world out there.”
The director strongly believes in the continuing importance of documentaries in the age of social media. “Social media is a place where it’s often difficult to have more complex conversations, because it rewards binary positions,” Finley says. “Long-form documentaries, especially observational films, can reveal a story over three or four years. If it’s longitudinal, you have the luxury of showing change over time. So, there’s a real power and joy in making long-form observational films that I think even in an algorithmic world it’s still relevant.”
Finlay is not slowing down. “The next film I will produce is a historical story,” she says. THRbefore adding all she could share right now: “It’s the untold story of a woman that everyone should know about.”
But for now, her focus is on All rivers pour their stories into the sea. THR It can reveal an exclusive clip of the document. So sit back and watch a glimpse of the problems Hunter Stan and others have to deal with at Finlay’s All rivers pour their stories into the sea. We won’t spoil anything, but get ready for lore and some financial math. But be careful: something fishy is going on.
