The Salmon Project

The workshops:

The Salmon Project ran over the winter of 2020.  Eight fantastic young writers collaborated with the Don Catchment Rivers Trust to learn about the recent return of salmon to our very own river Don. This project was in celebration of the construction of the fish pass at Masbrough Weir in Rotherham – the final piece in the jigsaw of a 20 year vision to enable salmon to return to the River Don.

Despite not being able to visit the river together during lockdown, these writers managed to bring the Don to life through their incredible storytelling. 

Over just 6 sessions, they researched, wrote, scripted and acted in this inspiring animated film telling the story of the salmon. They worked closely with sound artist Lee Affen, to bring their characters to life during the recording process.  The young people also gave fantastic instructions to the animator from Seventy One Digital, who turned their ideas into this fully realised film. 

The outcome:

This tale takes us back 200 years into the deep polluted past of the river Don to learn why the salmon left, and into the bright and babbling future with their recent return. Alongside the salmon, you can expect to meet a whole host of river dwelling creatures, along with one very suspicious duck and a very lazy salmon. 

The film was premiered on 12th March 2021.  All the young writers, artists and staff and trustees from DCRT came together online to watch the film for the first time.  It’s fair to say it went down a total storm! 

We really hope this film inspires you to get outside and visit the beautiful river Don, and look out for those returning salmon! If you would like to know more about the river Don or where and when to spot the salmon, visit the DCRT website to see what they’ve been up to https://dcrt.org.uk/