HILTZ

The tiny village of Finn Slough clings to the bank of the Fraser River in the City of Richmond, British Columbia, part of greater Vancouver. Settled over a hundred years ago by Finnish fishermen and their families, only a few fishermen remain, the end result of the plummeting salmon stocks which have decimated the once thriving fishery of Canada's west coast . Somehow, Finn Slough has survived, its residents determined to protect and preserve their unique lifestyle of homes on stilts, in the midst of nature in the tidal area close to the mouth of the Fraser River. Finn Slough's residents, now a colorful collection of eccentrics and artists, each tells a story of a personal struggle to maintain a lifestyle in the face of ever-threatening urban development and pollution. Without title to the land on which their homes sit, the river people of Finn Slough, like driftwood in the river, find themselves at the mercy of the whimsical currents of competing jurisdictions and economic interests. As the fisherman's livelihood fades, and memories of bumper salmon catches of years past haunt his thoughts, his neighbor, a talented artist unable to sell his work, resorts to carpentry to survive. At Finn Slough, the old die, and the children move on while the eons-old patterns of nature continue at the Slough, unchanging, unhurried, rhythmical like the tides that come and go, and give cycle to the days.