All Rivers Spill Their Stories To The Sea

"You can't beat home can you?" - Stan Rennie.

A simple question that in many ways encapsulates the sense of family and community that flows through Jeanie Finlay's latest documentary as strong and steadfastly as the River Tees flows into the sea at Hartlepool. That's where Stan Rennie is one of many fishermen who, like many from the County Durham port town, have spent their lives fishing in the waters along the coastline, following in the wake of generations before them.

September 25, 2011, was to change all of that when the area was hit by a mass die-off event, sprats washing up in numbers and a carpet of dead crabs on the beach a graphic illustration of the creatures hit by it. What caused that die-off, and the subsequent decimation of the fishing catches for Stan and his friends lies at the heart of Finlay's robust and moving consideration of the aftermath.

With catches down to such an extent that the fishermen can barely cover the price of diesel - a situation which has no doubt worsened exponentially with the global turmoil in recent months - Stan finds himself an accidental campaigner as the investigation into what could have caused the situation soon puts him at loggerheads with government.

The fishermen come to suspect, with good reason, that dredging for the first of the then Conservative government's planned freeports, which come complete with tax and customs exemptions, may have caused so-called forever chemicals from the town's heavy industry to wash into the sea to devastating effect. As the community's questions are batted away from the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs and, worse still, mocked by the Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen, who comes out of this documentary very poorly, they decide to crowdfund their own research. The results are not good.

Finlay, who is originally from the area, has developed a good relationship with the fishing community so they open up with her about their hopes and fears. Her film also feels cohesive in terms of its look, with blues and the red of the lobster baskets recurrent tones, with the score from Lomond Campbell responding to the twists of the tale. There is judicious use of archive footage that is well incorporated, and the film also touches on additional problems in the modern world, including the narrowing of the media landscape. Full of anger and love in equal measure, All Rivers Spill Their Stories To The Sea is community-specific but its themes spill outward with global resonance.

Reviewed on: 23 Oct 2026