TBIFF on the Road starts tonight in Rogers City, continues at 6 p.m. on Thursday in Harrisville, and culminates Friday through Sunday at the Great Lakes Maritime Heritage Center in Alpena.

Tonight’s feature film is “Relentless,” written, directed, and produced by Thomas Lindsey Haskin, who goes by Lindsey Haskin. The film is narrated by J.K. Simmons, a Detroit native and Academy Award-winning actor who has appeared in over 200 films and television roles.

The film “tells the true story of remarkable people tackling the mystery of why the fish most prized by people nearly vanished from the largest freshwater ecosystem on Earth: the Great Lakes,” a synopsis of “Relentless” explains. “The crash destroyed jobs and businesses, devastating towns, tribal communities and First Nations in Canada and the United States. Overfishing, dam building and industrial dumping had already decimated fish populations in parts of the Great Lakes, but fish began disappearing far from industrial cities. Scientists discovered what proved to be the most destructive marine species to ever invade the Great Lakes. Their tenacious search for a way to control it continues to influence the Great Lakes region’s economic fortunes and sounds a warning about the future of natural resources and the prosperity of millions around the world today.”

“This is basically the story of sea lamprey in the Great Lakes, about the invasion,” Haskin said. “About their impact on people’s lives, and on fishing, and on businesses. And about how commercial fishermen, especially, put political pressure on Congressmen and State Legislators, and Canada, as well, on members of Parliament, to do something about it. So, they basically started funding science to find a way to fight these things.”

Courtesy Image Lindsey Haskin’s film, “Relentless” is in the lineup of films showing at 6 p.m. tonight at the Rogers Theater in Rogers City as part of the Thunder Bay International Film Festival, which continues Thursday in Harrisville and Friday through Sunday in Alpena.

He explained that the reason why this screening is so important is that the main laboratory where they did the research is right up the road from Rogers City — the Hammond Bay Biological Station in Millersburg.

“It used to be run by the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries, which is no more, it’s been absorbed into the Department of Interior, and now, the U.S. Geological Survey runs that laboratory, but it’s still the prime laboratory for doing sea lamprey research in the Great Lakes,” Haskin said.

The bulk of the story takes place in the 1950s and 1960s, he said.

“There were a number of scientists who we found who have since passed away since we filmed them and made the film, but their families still live in the area and a lot of their descendants will be at the screening,” Haskin said.

Filming began about six years ago, and was slowed a bit during the pandemic. Filming took place all around the Great Lakes, from Chicago to Ontario and everywhere in between.

“Anybody who fishes, recreationally or commercially, will know about sea lamprey, because they still show up, nothing like they did in the 1950s and 1960s, but sea lamprey control is still ongoing,” Haskin said. “It has to go on, or otherwise it will go back to how bad it was in the 1950s and 1960s. The best way to characterize how bad it got is that the lake trout is the top-level predator in the Great Lakes, naturally. And it was the prime catch for commercial fishermen in the upper Great Lakes — Huron, Michigan, and Lake Superior — but, by the mid-1950s, there were no lake trout in Lake Huron or Lake Michigan. They were gone. And the only place they were still left were in Lake Superior, and sea lamprey were starting to show up up there.”

With the loss of lake trout came many economic losses associated with the fishing industry, as many people relied on it for their livelihood.

“In essence, the story is about how science and government came together to help people in small towns, to help small businesses,” Haskin said. “Things were going under. Small towns were going under … It was very hard times in this area and all the way around the Great Lakes.”

He explained that scientists were able to develop a chemical that can eliminate the sea lamprey larvae without harming the surrounding ecosystem.

“The other part of it is that, once sea lamprey control happened, it launched a whole new development that nobody ever anticipated,” Haskin said. “Which started here in Michigan, which was the start of the salmon fishery … A gentleman named Howard Tanner from the Michigan Department of Natural Resources brought in salmon eggs from Oregon and that would’ve never happened if there wasn’t sea lamprey control, because the salmon would’ve met the same fate that the lake trout had. Sea lamprey go after the largest targets they can get.”

He said the story is really about fishing and what can be accomplished when science and government work together to support communities.

“This is a story about how important fishing was, and how it was almost lost,” Haskin said. “And how government and science protected it and brought it back and made possible the fishing that we have in the Great Lakes now. And if it wasn’t for what was accomplished and what is still being done, there wouldn’t be any fishing in the Great Lakes. There wouldn’t be the marinas that are out here, there wouldn’t be the motels and the restaurants and the tourist towns and all those kinds of things that fishermen support. So, the star of this show, to me, is fishing, and the people to whom it’s important.”

He added that the title embodies both the creatures themselves, and the scientists out to eliminate them, including Vern Applegate.

In addition to “Relentless,” tonight’s films include “Deep Look: Skeleton Shrimp,” “Horseshoe Crabs: Survival of a Living Dinosaur,” and “Earth is Blue: Jellies.” Stay after the films for a live discussion. The program costs $10, or is included with the purchase of a Thunder Pass, which gets you into all the programs throughout the festival, which runs through Sunday. Purchase a Thunder Pass for $125 at thunderbayfriends.org.

About Haskin

Haskin is a passionate student of life. His love for learning, research, nature, flying, photography, music, people, cultures and adventures are essential elements of his work. He received his undergraduate education at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor and the University of California at Berkeley.

His production career began in Los Angeles with the Steve Allen organization. Then he worked as the director of business and development, and as a writer/producer with Venture Films, Inc. in Denver, Colorado. He returned to California and formed CineGroup, an independent production company. He has written, produced and directed over 400 productions that include documentary films, educational films, television commercials, public service announcements and industrial films.

Haskin’s camera work has appeared on ABC Primetime Live, CBS 48 Hours, ABC World News, and other venues. He wrote, produced and directed the two-hour documentary history of the Great Lakes Region, “Freshwater Seas,” which aired on public television stations in the U.S. and Canada.

In 2020, Haskin formed SkyhoundMedia, Inc. In our increasingly tech driven world, it’s easy to overlook how our prosperity, health and happiness depend upon nature and the diverse cultures of the world. SkyhoundMedia, Inc. was formed to explore those links through engaging, entertaining, thought-provoking and visually stunning non-fiction television programs, documentary films, and other media.