Flotsam & Jetsam is a marvelous documentary film based on beachcombers who live on the North Sea island of Texel in the Netherlands. These quirky, intrepid scavengers carry-on a centuries old tradition of collecting the myriad of stuff that washes up on Texel’s extensive beaches. Due to the island’s geographic location, the unyielding winds and powerful tides push more than a ton of flotsam and jetsam onto Texel’s beaches daily.

The beachcombers, or Jutters as they are known in in the West Frisian dialect of the island chain, even have opened a museum dedicated to the peculiar and prosaic finds from Texel’s shores.

The Jutters have a firm policy of “finders keepers” regarding anything that they glean from the beaches. In the words of one veteran beachcomber, “what the sea gives, we keep.”

So, if you’d like to find out why only left shoes wash up on Texel’s beaches and more about the last eight Jutters on Texel take a look at this thirteen minute film, which was directed by Sam Walkerdine for the UK Film Council.

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