Tina Kakadelis
On March 9, Film Obsessive was invited to attend the Variety Watch Party of Reef Builders at the SoHo House Austin at the 2025 SXSW Film & TV Festival. Presented by SHEBA, this event provided a small audience with a first look at the upcoming documentary. Their outreach program, Sheba Hope Grows, is one of the biggest champions of the cause and has provided immense funding and support to people making a difference in the health of our oceans.
Reef Builders chronicles the restoration of various reefs around the world. Sheba Hope Grows partnered with Mars Sustainable Solutions to encourage coral growth. Reef Builders provides a look at the efforts happening now in Indonesia, Hawaii, Kenya, and Australia. One of the most famous reef systems in the world, the Great Barrier Reef, is just one of the many that are suffering. The film features Professor David Smith, Senior Director and Chief Marine Scientist at Mars Sustainable Solutions, Dr. Daniel DeMartini from Kuleana Coral Restoration, and actor/activist Auliʻi Cravalho.
The film is a staggering look at the world that exists below the ocean’s surface. One of the main points reiterated in the film is the idea that snorkeling or scuba diving is like entering another planet. Reef Builders gives the audience the sensation of that experience, even though they’re on solid ground. The world of coral reefs is beautiful to look at, but, most surprisingly, it’s also auditorily vibrant. All the reef sounds in the film were captured underwater, and that creates such an immersive experience for those who have never had the opportunity to experience it firsthand.
Over the past 30 years, we’ve lost half of the world’s coral reefs. It would be easy for Reef Builders to leave the audience with a sense of doom, given the circumstances and the role of the reef in the health of the ocean, but the documentary is filled with hope. It’s a sentiment that was echoed in the post-screening panel that featured Cravalho, Smith, DeMartini, Mindy Barry (Global Vice President of SHEBA), and director Stephen Shearman. The panel was moderated by Variety Senior Awards Editor Clayton Davis.
While Sheba Hope Grows is the financial backing behind the project, it’s the communities who are the engine of change on the ground. During the panel discussion, Smith talked about how he has spent most of his scientific career documenting the demise of reefs, but now he finally has the chance to document the salvation. Our natural environment is hurting, but with simple discoveries like the ones shown in Reef Builders, we can turn things around. As DeMartini noted in the panel, the significant efforts that are being made are thanks in part to SHEBA. Change is possible when companies choose to spend their money on this planet that we all share, rather than hoarding it.
Cravalho opened the panel by sharing the Hawaiian saying “land is chief, man is servant.” Reef Builders, though not solely based in Hawaii, exemplifies this mentality. All the people in the film want to help the reefs because they rely on them, and have for generations. Reef Builders is proof of what can happen when people come together as a community to enact meaningful, lasting change through collaboration.
