Scottish Premiere.

On England’s North East coast, where rivers, heavy industry and the sea have shaped lives for generations, fisherman Stan Rennie is watching the world he knows disappear. His family have worked these waters for centuries. Then, almost overnight, thousands of dead crabs and lobsters wash ashore, and a community already living with uncertainty is pushed into crisis.

Teesside filmmaker Jeanie Finlay (Your Fat Friend) brings warmth, wit and deep local feeling to this David-and-Goliath story of environmental damage, official evasions and working-class resilience. At its centre is Stan: funny, stubborn, vulnerable and increasingly determined to be heard. Urgent and characterful, All Rivers Spill Their Stories to the Sea asks what it means to belong to a coastline and to fight for its future.

Guest

Jeanie Finlay

Director, All Rivers Spill Their Stories to the Sea

Jeanie Finlay is a British documentary filmmaker and artist known for intimate, award-winning work that resonates globally. Her tenth feature, All Rivers Spill Their Stories to the Sea, premiered at CPH:DOX 2026, nominated for the F:ACT Award. She's made films for HBO, BBC (including Storyville), and IFC — among them BIFA-nominated Seahorse, cult favourite Sound It Out, and Emmy-nominated Game of Thrones: The Last Watch. Recent work includes Your Fat Friend (2023). A Chicken & Egg Awardee and Sheffield Docfest Inspiration Award winner, Jeanie founded Glimmer Films and co-founded its distribution arm, Glimmerama.

With Short Film: Ain’t No Fish

Film Classic. A miniature stop-motion classic with a wicked little bite, as hungry Arctic seals croon through vintage cheer while the sea beneath them tells a much darker story.

Guests

Tom Gasek

Co-Director, Ain't No Fish

Tom Gasek is Professor Emeritus at RIT, where he taught in the School of Film and Animation for 19 years, following 26 years as a professional director and animator with credits including Aardman's The Wrong Trousers and Chicken Run, and Laika's Coraline. He ran several studios of his own, including San Francisco's award-winning Sculptoons. A Fulbright Specialist, Gasek wrote the only book on "non-puppet stop motion" for Focal Press and recently completed his third independent film, 4@60 (including ROCKS), using the technique.

Miki Cash

Co-Director, Ain't No Fish

With over twenty years in animation, Michael Cash has freelanced across the US, France, Spain and Denmark, and worked at Aardman Animations, animating on Creature Comforts, Chicken Run, commercials and short films. In 2007 he co-founded illustration and animation studio WÖNKY, where he oversees the animation and design teams and directs the majority of its commercial and broadcast work.