The Pike River film tells the story of the tragedy, focusing on the fight for justice by families, particularly Anna Osborne and Sonya Rockhouse. Photo: Supplied
The Pike River mine disaster killed 29 men, and sparked a fifteen-year fight for justice. A new film brings that fight to the big screens.
It was a tragedy many say should never have happened.
On 19 November, 2010, the first of five explosions rocked Pike River Mine, trapping 31 men.
The disaster killed 29 of those men, and changed the lives of their families and the nearby Greymouth community forever.
But that was just the beginning. What followed was years of protest, advocacy and a fight for accountability.
"We should always question those in power," says Rob Sarkies, the director of the new feature film Pike River.
Two ordinary women
The film tells the story of the tragedy, focusing on the fight for justice by families, particularly Anna Osborne and Sonya Rockhouse.
"I would like to think that the movie can help activate some people," Sarkies says.
"If you watch it, and you see what Sonya and Anna - "ordinary women" - could do, the impact that they actually had, then you can do it too."
When news of the first explosion broke, the whole nation stopped and attention turned to Greymouth. Rebecca Macfie, an award-winning journalist and author of Tragedy at Pike River mine: how and why 29 men died, says it was very clear this was not an accident.
"An accident implies that there's no fault and that was not the case here."
'A long time coming'
A Royal Commission inquiry highlighted problems, errors and deficiencies that contributed to the disaster.
In this episode of The Detail, Macfie explains how court processes failed the families of the 29 men who died, and why fifteen years later, they're still left with unanswered questions.
"[It's] just an appalling breach of public trust really, exemplified particularly by the dismissal against the chief executive of the mine.
"That decision was fought tooth and nail through the courts, led by Anna Osborne and Sonya Rockhouse ... they were supported by Helen Kelly, the late leader of the Council of Trade Unions, to take a judicial review against that decision," Macfie says.
That fight is now playing out on screen, with Pike River set to be released in cinemas next Thursday.
It's been a long time coming - director Rob Sarkies has been working on the idea for seven years, including hundreds of hours of conversations with the families.
"The hardest thing about making this movie was the period of time after we'd written the script, as we were financing it, when we didn't know whether we would be making it," he says.
"I was never able to promise to the families that a movie would definitely come out of those many hours of interviews and discussions, but of course they all hoped something would come out of it."
Macfie thinks that this film will help with the fight for accountability, by telling the story of how the families have been "deceived and betrayed".
"This is fundamentally about justice and about how we conduct ourselves as a country," Macfie says.
"I think at the end of the day the question for everybody, not just the families ... is 'are we okay with this?'
"Are we okay that a company that was literally incompetent; that was literally deceiving its workers and its investors; that was literally in breach of the rules that still existed at that time governing mining; is it okay that they blow up their asset, kill 29 workers in an entirely, 100 percent-avoidable catastrophe, and that nothing happens?
"Are we okay with that?"
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