Jeanie Finlay’s environmental documentary All Rivers Spill Their Stories to the Sea sets UK cinema release

Jeanie Finlay’s latest documentary, All Rivers Spill Their Stories to the Sea, will open in UK cinemas on 23^rd October, following its festival run at CPH:DOX, Sheffield DocFest and the Mediterrane Film Festival, where it won the People’s Choice Award (Mare Nostrum).

The tenth feature from the acclaimed British documentary filmmaker behind Your Fat Friend, Seahorse and Game of Thrones: The Last Watch returns Finlay to the North East, where she explores the mysterious environmental disaster that saw thousands of crabs and lobsters wash up dead along the Teesside coastline.

At the heart of the film is Hartlepool fisherman Stan Rennie, whose search for answers transforms him from a lifelong fisherman into an unlikely campaigner. As official explanations fail to satisfy local communities, Rennie embarks on a determined fight for accountability, with Finlay documenting the personal toll of an environmental crisis that continues to divide opinion.

Produced by Charlie Phillips, the documentary combines an intimate character study with a wider examination of environmental justice, community resilience and the relationship between ordinary people and those in positions of power. It also marks something of a homecoming for Finlay, who returned to “the beaches of my childhood” to tell a story rooted in the place where she grew up. Reflecting on the project, the filmmaker said she wanted to capture “the grief and frustration that Stan Rennie and the fishermen of Hartlepool have experienced as their pleas for support and answers have fallen on the deaf ears of those in power”.

The editorial unit

All Rivers Spill Their Stories to the Sea is released in select cinemas on 23^rd October 2026.