Growing up in Hastings on Britain's south coast, English director Jacob Harmer would spend his summers diving off the harbor arm. It was here he first met Willy, the older of the two young fishermen whose tough but fiercely independent way of life he captures in Nets. Rekindling their friendship after many years, Harmer joined Willy and his crewmates out on the family boat to uncover the pleasures and the perils of working life onboard a trawler.

“I hadn't spoken to him for years until we shot this, and it was a good laugh remembering stories from our past,” says Harmer. “I’ve been out on the water with the boys half a dozen times now, and seen some awe-inspiring sights, but also feared for my life at times. They are very proud of their heritage. I met some complex and fascinating characters, and they universally had a strong appreciation for the beauty of their surroundings.”

Somewhere between the romance of a Hemingway novel and the daily grind of making a living through manual labor lies the truth about the fisherman's life. “The irregular sleep and the constant physical battle with nature make fishing a dangerous lifestyle for hard, driven men,” says the director. “But then Charlie, the youngest one, told me pulling fish from the sea was like pulling cash from the water: ‘Sometimes you get a tenner, sometimes you get a quid.’ I’d never looked at it like that before.”

Tom Horan is Culture Editor-at-Large at NOWNESS.