New film documents the Rena, Aotearoa's 'largest pollution disaster'

Thursday, 18 May 2023

Taking Back Our Beach is a documentary about New Zealand's largest pollution disaster, the grounding of the MV Rena on Astrolabe Reef in the Bay of Plenty in 2011.

When 70-year-old Glenis Ashley opened her front door at 5am to put the cat out, a “strange blob-like creature” shot inside the Pāpāmoa retiree’s house, leaving a trail of sticky black footprints across her beige carpet.

Ashley was astonished to discover it was a little blue penguin, covered in tar-like oil.

The penguin was one of many marine lives affected after container ship MV Rena struck Ōtāiti, Astrolabe Reef in the Bay of Plenty on October 5, 2011, and began spilling 1700 tonnes of heavy fuel oil and the contents of its containers.

Ashley’s penguin rescue is just one of the moving stories captured in a new documentary, Taking Back Our Beach, about Aotearoa’s largest-ever pollution disaster.

**READ MORE:

The container ship MV Rena, which ran aground on the Astrolabe Reef on its way to Tauranga.

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* Rena shipwreck divers discover reef roiling with life nine years after sinking

Volunteers on the beach help clean up the oil and debris spilled from the Rena container ship

The accounts are told through the lens of the Bay of Plenty community that battled to save its iconic wildlife and treasured beaches from the devastation caused by the wreck.

When the ship broke up, containers and their contents slid into the ocean.

In another scene, a local teenager who rushes to the beach to help the cleanup is turned away by authorities, so he comes back later disguised in an army uniform, determined to get stuck in.

”The battle of the community against what they saw as floundering bureaucracy is a key theme,” said the documentary’s director, Anton Steel.

Director Anton Steel films a re-enactment of a forgiveness ceremony between iwi and the ship’s crew.

“There were so many community heroes who came together to take back their power, and their beaches.”

Steel, together with producer Rosalie Liddle Crawford, crafted the 87-minute feature-length film from hours of interviews capturing memories and thoughts from some of the more than 8000 volunteers, iwi, wildlife leaders, marine experts, small business owners and community leaders.

Dead oiled seabirds, killed from oil from the Rena shipwreck.

When a former mayor breaks down in tears on camera, the film captures the shockwaves of anger and grief at the massive field of oil and debris strewn along the coast in the aftermath of the disaster.

“Floundering bureaucrats ignored the local advice and knowledge that could have largely avoided the disaster, and then were painfully slow to clean up the overwhelming mess. A groundswell of volunteers just got stuck in to save wildlife and clean up the mess,” said Steel.

It was an environmental catastrophe of unprecedented scale, blackening New Zealand beaches with 350 tonnes of oil, killing thousands of marine birds, and threatening the future of kaimoana.

Yet there are uplifting tales too, which convey the people’s deep connection to their land and each other.

Sam Taikato found a life ring from the Rena washed up on Matakana Island.

Iwi raise community spirits at the Incident Control Centre, starting each day with a karakia and waiata. A 6-metre-long barbecue feeds the hundreds of volunteers for free. In one scene, a simple act of forgiveness is shown by local iwi to the ship’s scapegoated Filipino crew.

The premiere will be an emotional experience for executive producer Claire Rogers, whose husband Brian, an avid boatie, former coastguard skipper and seasoned journalist, was the first to get to the scene of the wreck.

Some of the army of thousands of volunteers during the beach clean-up.

Brian died of bowel cancer last year, but was able to see the movie’s final cut. His memories of the fateful morning are poignantly documented in his final interview, describing the moment he realised it was going to be a major environmental crisis.

“I’ll never forget driving on quad bikes across Matakana Island, it was heartbreaking to see the mess washed up on our beautiful beaches,” said Claire Rogers.

Brian’s terminal illness was a catalyst for starting the documentary, as Liddle Crawford decided to film his reflections on the event.

Via their company Sun Media, Brian and Claire backed the filmmakers, making available archived footage and thousands of photos as well as initial funding.

“Although he's not around to see the end product of the documentary, he's very much a part of it. It couldn't be without him really,” said Claire Rogers.

The stories of the clean-up couldn’t be possible either without the thousands of people from all walks of life who came together to save their beloved beaches.

It’s this positive message of the power of the community uniting in the face of disaster that viewers are left with.

The documentary is a stark reminder of the constant threat of environmental disasters.

While humans have the potential to wreak havoc on our national taonga, the film’s message is that everyone also has the power to preserve it – in whatever way they can, like the septuagenarian widower who rescued a little blue penguin who turned up on her doorstep, covered in oil, and needing a helping hand.

Taking Back Our Beach is being shown as part of the Doc Edge festival, with a screening in Auckland on May 28 at 2:15pm at The Capitol Cinema and in Wellington on June 11 at 2:15PM at The Roxy Cinema, and online via the Doc Edge virtual cinema from June 19 to July 9.