The film telling the story of the 2011 Rena grounding and the massive community involvement in cleaning up the beach following the resulting oil disaster is the topic of a TV3 interview on ‘The Project' on Monday night, May 29.

Anton Steel, the director, producer and editor of the 90-minute feature film ‘Taking Back our Beach' is being interviewed at 7pm tonight along with Dr Sarah Lockwood from Waikato University.

The film was screened on Sunday afternoon at Capitol Theatre, Auckland as part of the Doc Edge Festival, to rapturous applause from the audience.

'It's so wonderful we could bring this film to the Doc Edge Festival,” says Doc Edge co-founder and director Alex Lee. 'It's very important to be able to show films that tell stories of New Zealand.”

The film is about the response by the community to NZ's largest environmental disaster, as seen through the eyes of that community. It features interviews, footage of the disaster, ship and debris, while ending on inspiring and mostly positive outcomes.

Dr Sarah Lockwood

Sarah, who will be appearing with Anton on The Project tonight, was one of a number of GenY (16-29 year old) volunteers who helped respond to the oil spill caused by the grounding of the MV Rena off the coast of Tauranga in 2011.

"I was in a unique position to find out directly from other GenY volunteers what this form of crisis volunteering meant, and how their social networking, use of technology and speed impacted the way they responded," says Sarah.

She went on to complete her PhD thesis on 'Volunteering at the edge of chaos: A case study on the self-organising of younger volunteers during the Rena oil spill crisis'.

Following the Rena disaster she also worked with the Solomon Island Government to help engage the locals to respond to a mining ship that leaked oil onto their island which is a Unesco World heritage site. And the Red Cross International Society had her advise their senior leadership team on how to engage younger volunteers in their disaster response.

Doc Edge Festival

The Doc Edge Festival screening on Sunday opened with a karakia by traditional Pacific navigator and Tauranga's Jack Thatcher who also features in the film. Jack helped lead the iwi response from the Incident Command Centre during the months following the grounding of the Rena on Astrolabe.

There are many poignant moments during the film, including the appearance of three people who passed away during the film's post-production - Sun Media co-owner Brian Rogers, who was first to break the news to the world on SunLive of the ship hitting the reef; Sue Behrens who was a beach clean up volunteer; and Bruce Fraser, who lead the community response.

Producer, director and editor of 'Taking Back our Beach' Anton Steel. Photo: Supplied.

'The idea for the film came while we were coordinating volunteers back in 2011,” says producer and Rise Up Tauranga co-leader Rosalie Liddle Crawford. 'We've been actively working towards it more over the last six years but it was when Brian was diagnosed with terminal bowel cancer that I knew we had to just go for it, and fortunately Anton was available.

"Without him and Claire Rogers it wouldn't have been made. And if we'd waited until we had all the funds in before making the film, it would have been another 10 years. It was important that we capture those voices now, it's such a key moment in our history."

The response to the film's screening on Sunday was a special moment for Claire, Anton and Rosalie.

'It was fantastic to see the audience respond to not only the tragedy but also the humour and triumph of the story,” says the film's director Anton Steel.

'This is a film celebrating the power of individuals to collectively make change for good and I was stoked to finally share it with an audience who enjoyed it so much.

'A personal highlight was seeing how a key moment of forgiveness within the film resonated with so many.”

Comments following the screening reflected this, with many saying how much it resonated with them.

'I loved seeing the little blue penguins,” says one audience member.

'I had forgotten how much oil there was on the beach,” says another. 'When I was watching the film I remembered the smell from the oil, it all came back to me.”

'I didn't know there were so many penguins at the Mount, they were so cute,” says a third audience member.

Taking Back Our Beach Trailer

Community support

The film has been made possible due to the support of the community that were originally involved in taking back their beach following the oil and debris that turned it into what Sun Media owner Brian Rogers said at the time 'It's like Mad Max”.

Bay of Plenty Regional Council, Holland Beckett Law, Priority One, Bay Conservation Alliance, Western Bay Wildlife Trust, Sun Media, Tauranga Marine Charters, Te Matai Investments and many individuals have all contributed to helping bring the film to the screen.

'Thank you also to Department of Post for their generous support in the online editing process, final sound mix and mastering the final film files for cinematic release,” says Anton.

Anton and Sarah will be interviewed on The Project, TV3, at 7pm, Monday May 29.

‘Taking Back our Beach' is being shown at the Doc Edge Festival in Wellington on Sunday June 11. It will then be available to view on the Doc Edge Virtual Cinema from June 19 - July 9. Book your ticket here:

https://docedge.nz/films/taking-back-our-beach/

On October 5, the Bay of Plenty premiere of the film will be held at United Cinemas at Mount Maunganui, coinciding with the 12th anniversary of the Rena grounding on the Astrolabe Reef.