All Rivers Spill Their Stories to the Sea

Jeanie Finlay brings her new documentary, All Rivers Spill Their Stories to the Sea, to Chapter on Tuesday 20 October, with a run of screenings following through to Thursday 29 October. It's a film about a fisherman called Stan Rennie, who's worked the North-East England coastline for more than fifty years. When a tide of poisoned crabs and lobsters washes ashore in the wake of a new Brexit-fuelled development, Stan becomes the unlikely figurehead of a grassroots campaign to uncover the truth, navigating grief and finding power in community along the way.

Finlay is a Teesider filmmaker, and this is a story from her own patch. If her name rings a bell, it's probably from Your Fat Friend, The Great Hip Hop Hoax, Seahorse or Sound It Out — she's spent a good while working with people on the fringes and telling stories that don't always make the front pages. Here, the focus is on Rennie, a man who's spent half a century on the water and finds himself pushed into a public fight he didn't ask for.

The film runs an hour and 39 minutes and is certified ADV12A. It kicks off on Tuesday 20 October at 7.15pm, which is a Q&A session — a good chance to hear Finlay talk through the making of it. After that, there's a full run of screenings: Friday 23 October at 2.45pm and 8.35pm; Saturday 24 October at 12.30pm and 6.25pm; Sunday 25 October at 11.30am and 5.30pm; Monday 26 October at 5.30pm, which is captioned; Tuesday 27 October at 1.20pm and 5.30pm; Wednesday 28 October with a captioned screening at 3.20pm and another at 7.35pm; and finally Thursday 29 October at 2.45pm and 8.35pm. Plenty of slots to fit in, whether you're a lunchtime or an evening person.