Including a Q&A session at the Radway Cinema with the film-makers.
“Sidmouth features in the film” [Pip Piper, director]
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Sewage spilling into our waters is not exactly a new story.
Three years ago, we were asking: sewage spill around Sidmouth’s beach: what’s it all about? A year later we saw sewage discharged into Sidmouth seas – again. And last summer we were looking at ‘people power’: policing pollution and getting the polluter to pay as a possible way forward.
This is indeed what has been happening down the coast, when a Exmouth sea swimmer sued water firm SWW over sewage spills two years ago; shortly afterwards, Jo Bateman broadened her challenge against South West Water; and within the last fortnight, this lawsuit against SWW over sewage has widened to more towns – to include people from the Devon towns of Dawlish, Sidmouth and Teignmouth, as well as Newquay and Penzance in Cornwall.
We can see how this case has unfolded from Jo Bateman herself – in a documentary film out now and about to screen at the Radway Cinema Sidmouth on Sunday 22nd March.
As the independent filmmaker Pip Piper and director of Jo in The Water has said to the VGS: “Sidmouth features in the film, as we filmed Jo with Jeremy Vine there on his radio show during the Folk Festival in 2024.”
Here are the countrywide, upcoming film screenings of Jo in The Water – with more from the Radway’s website on Jo in the Water plus Q&A and how to book tickets.
Here’s the Jo in the Water official cinema trailer – and here’s the poster for the Sidmouth showing:
And here’s Pip talking further about the film:
Sea swimming is Jo Bateman’s sanctuary—until sewage spills threaten the waters she loves in Exmouth Devon.
A passionate sea swimmer turned reluctant activist, Jo Bateman takes on one of the UK’s biggest water companies in a David-and-Goliath battle to protect our oceans from devastating sewage pollution.
As Jo’s courage helps ignite a growing movement, this film exposes the dire state of our water system and asks: who will stand up for our right to swim in clean natural waters, for the species and communities that rely upon them?
Jo in the Water is a powerful, emotional feature-length documentary film. It is not just about water pollution; it is about connection—to nature, to our own sense of place, and to our responsibility for the world around us.
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