Filmmaker Stephen Shearman is so passionate about his first feature documentary, “Reef Builders,” that he’s traveling over 4,000 miles from his home in Bristol, England, to show it at the Quad Cities Environmental Film Series, Sunday, March 1, at Galvin Fine Arts Center, 2101 Gaines St., Davenport.
The last entry in this year’s film series (to screen at 3 p.m. in Allaert Auditorium on the St. Ambrose University campus), “Reef Builders” spotlights the inspiring stories of the people behind the Sheba Hope Grows program -- part of one of the world’s largest coral reef restoration programs led by Mars Sustainable Solutions (MSS) -- and the vital role of ocean communities in the move to help restore our planet’s coral reefs.
Shearman, who directed and released the 75-minute film in spring 2025, was approached about showing it here by Moline-based filmmaker Kelly Rundle of the QC film series, presented with River Action.
“To meet people who want to watch environmental films, to spread the word in America in these really, really dark times was an opportunity not to be missed for me,” Shearman said in a recent Zoom interview. “I'm really excited. I can't wait to meet everyone out there and to show the film.”
The documentary, developed in partnership with sister company AMV BBDO, is a result of the Sheba brand’s (part of the Mars candy company family of brands) longtime commitment to supporting the restoration of coral reefs around the globe. The wide-ranging Mars, Inc. includes snacking (M&Ms, Snickers, Pringles and Cheez-Its), pet care, pet food, and other food and nutritional products.
Frank Mars, a board member of Mars, Inc., is “a very, very passionate ocean advocate,” Shearman said. “And he took this into his heart and he was determined to use his influence and his power for good, but not only to not do it in a sort of glib greenwashing way or anything like that, but to make actual effective change.
"And he's brought in some astounding world-class scientists to back him up and to make sure that kind of allegation of a corporation just fiddling on the edges of something, that it doesn't apply here.
“I can only speak to what I see on the ground and I can see the real changes and I documented them, the real changes that are being made in communities that the rest of the world would forget about,” he said.
With “Reef Builders,” Shearman focused on the importance of coral. One billion people rely directly or indirectly on coral for their well-being -- their food, for sustenance, for security of their homes.
“Because without coral, their island homes are washed away. That's an eighth of the world's population rely on coral in some form or another,” he said. “When I first had my initial meetings with Professor Dave Smith, he very quickly told me that the huge push and the purpose of the program was to work directly with those communities.”
The documentary (filmed around the world between February 2024 and March 2025) is a story of how Hope has grown globally and was made to highlight the contributions of the more than 200 reef builders who are working to restore this vital marine ecosystem (according to MARRS training data tracked by MSS, MSS Impact Report, 2024). By watching “Reef Builders,” viewers are showing support for a global community determined to explore the solutions we need to restore coral reefs.
Shearman is a series producer, show runner, and producer/director who has worked across a wide range of documentary, drama/doc, specialist factual and factual entertainment programs for Disney+, Discovery+, Sky One, Discovery Channel, National Geographic, Animal Planet, Travel Channel, Science, History and NBC Universal. He has experience identifying key pieces of footage and turning complex topics -- such as wildlife, adventure, travel, history and science -- into engaging and entertaining programs, and is comfortable working in difficult and hostile environments and experienced filming all around the world.
Shearman read about the work of David Smith, Senior Director, MSS and Chief Marine Scientist, Mars Incorporated, and wanted to document the success of reef restoration in selected areas.
“When I first read about Professor David Smith and his team’s work in Indonesia with HOPE Reef, I was in awe,” the film director said.
“But nothing could’ve prepared me for the experience of being on the ground and seeing firsthand how these ocean communities are rallying together to power real change below and above our oceans’ surface,” Shearman said. “That’s why ‘Reef Builders’ is really a film about humans. Through the telling of the moving, and at times harrowing stories of these reef builders, it’s my intention that the audience also builds a human connection with our coral reefs.”
Told through powerful on land and underwater photography captured by director of photography Ossian Bacon, Mark Sharman, Tom Park and Kyle McBurnie, “Reef Builders” takes viewers on a journey to Bontosua, Indonesia; Lamu, Kenya; Moore Reef, Australia, and O’ahu, Hawai’i (home of actor, environmental advocate and associate producer Auli'i Cravalho) to give viewers an unprecedented look into the fight to help save coral reefs worldwide.
“I’ve witnessed decades of coral reef devastation due to rapidly warming oceans, over-fishing and over-tourism. Restoring the world’s coral reefs isn’t something that can be undertaken alone – it requires the ocean community, businesses and consumers from all corners of the earth to unite around the reef builders and scale their efforts,” David Smith said in a film release. “While we’ve seen promising success since the inception of the program, we still have a long way to go on this journey. Gaining the support of all who view this documentary will help us further the program immeasurably.”
“As a proud Native Hawaiian, I care deeply about our oceans as coral is a foundational species, both culturally and scientifically,” Cravalho (the 25-year-old star of the animated “Moana” films) said in a 2025 press release. “In the Hawaiian kumulipo (creation chant) the coral polyp was the first organism created by Sky-Father and Earth-Mother, so we see coral as our original ancestor and respect them as elders.
“Working with the Sheba brand on this restoration program and being part of this documentary has allowed me to partner with the scientists, local fisherman and divers of Hawai’i to give back to my community and help implement a groundbreaking, man-made solution to a man-made problem,” she said.
In April 2025, Cravalho told Teen Vogue that she loved being able to highlight the experience of Indigenous communities around the world. “What was most important to me in being behind the camera was the tone and how we were going to show these communities onscreen,” she said then. “I was very aware of Hawai’i, of course, but we also touched upon places like Indonesia, Kenya, and Australia.”
“There are so many different methods to reef building,” Cravalho said. “All of them are important, and I appreciated the sentiment that we are a community of reef builders who are connected by this ocean, who are affected — as people on the front lines usually are — by climate change, from the erosion of reefs to coral bleaching.”
Coral reefs in danger
Today, the world’s coral reefs, often called the “rainforests of the sea,” are in critical danger. Scientists estimate 90% of the world’s tropical reefs will be gone by 2043 if the world does nothing (ICRI), potentially threatening 25% of all the world’s marine life (EPA) and impacting the nearly one billion people worldwide that benefit either directly or indirectly from the ecosystem services coral reefs provide (NOAA).
Over half of the world's coral reefs have been lost or are severely damaged to date, so that most of them will never recover, and they certainly can't recover on their own, Shearman said. “When you realize that our coral reefs support a quarter of our marine species on Earth, it's a terrifying prospect. You know, the loss of our coral reefs is one of the foundational species on Earth. It drives the oceans,” Shearman said.
“It is the nurturing, the hunting ground for a quarter of the ocean species. And then 1 billion people worldwide rely in some form or other on coral reefs,” he said, noting they’re being lost due to ocean acidification, global fishing practices, and the biggest factor, rising water temperatures.
America’s withdrawal from fighting climate change is very disappointing, Shearman said.
“I think environmental groups are really struggling and I don't think ever certainly in America's history, but in recent history worldwide have we seen more environmental pressure from political ideology and the stress, the point where we need to be most active in the world,” he said. “With our ocean temperatures rising, we haven't yet seen the devastation caused by coral reef loss. It's going to come very soon in the next 10 years. We're going to really start to notice that drop off of ocean species.
“Of course it's really frustrating, but my job is to sing from the rooftops as much as I can, the good work that is being done,” Shearman said. “Mars is not a government organization. It's run by a corporation. It's not philanthropic. It runs itself as a business. They very much are part of these myriad tiny communities.”
“At the moment it's a very, very tough period for anyone who's concerned about the environment,” he added.
On Feb. 12, 2026, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency finalized its removal of the 2009 Greenhouse Gas Endangerment Finding, which served as a prerequisite for regulating emissions from new motor vehicles and new engines. EPA now lacks statutory authority under the Clean Air Act to prescribe standards for GHG emissions, and has repealed all subsequent GHG emission standards from its regulations for light-, medium-, and heavy-duty vehicles and engines. This is the single largest deregulatory action in U.S. history.
While world superpowers like the U.S., China and Russia aren’t making big steps to combat climate change, efforts like MSS should be supported, he said.
“Whilst we rail against these super powerful countries, the coral keeps dying. And I'm a fervent believer in what Dave's trying to achieve and what Frank Mars is trying to achieve,” Shearman said. “We should do all of the campaigning we possibly can. But at the same time, supporting these communities to regrow their coral, I think is extremely important. It is possible to be rolled out across the globe.”
There are now 289 reef builders in 17 countries, compared to 11 countries at the beginning of 2025, Shearman said. Across 124 sites, 1.5 million corals have been planted.
It was also vital to have Cravalho (who has eight million Instagram followers) as a strong voice in the film.
“She is a passionate ocean advocate. She's a proud Hawaiian and she works or she was volunteering already with Kuleana,” Shearman said. “So to fold her into the film and to have her voice as an associate producer on the film, to have her a megaphone on Instagram has been massively invaluable. And alongside that there are loads of other smaller Instagram influences like Mads Ocean and all those people who proudly advocate ocean causes and they were employed by MSS to amplify the message of the film and it's been really successful."
Kuleana Coral Restoration is partnering with Sheba, collaborating with marine scientists since 2023. Kuleana continues to pilot methods of coral restoration, together with training more teams, with the aim of restoring more sites around Hawai’i.
Over a year of underwater filming, Shearman was lucky enough to work with three of the world's greatest underwater cinematographers – Mark Sharman, Tom Park and Kyle McBurnie.
“I don't really dive when they're filming because I just get in the way. So you just have these beautiful jewels when you come up, when they bring the footage back,” he said. “I think especially Mark's work. I loved Tom, all three of their work. But Mark's work in Indonesia, seeing that coral reef and every now if you look at it and you know the big direction was not to move. just to hold the shots and just slowly allow the scene to develop in front of the camera rather than try and seek out shots.
“And if you look really closely you can see the reef stars. I mean and you have to just remind yourself it's all been rebuilt by man. You know, that's the most astounding thing,” Shearman said.
The restoration of HOPE
The film begins with the program’s most widely recognizable success story to date, the restoration of HOPE Reef in Indonesia. HOPE Reef was built using a simple but revolutionary invention – a steel structure referred to as the Reef Star – that turned a decimated coral-rubble field into a flourishing coral reef. It’s told through the lens of one local Bontosuan fisherman, Samaila, who has lived through coral reef loss and coral reef regeneration.
More broadly, across four coral reef locations, viewers will see how the MSS team, led by David Smith, are partnering with coastal communities and NGOs to scale the operation globally for even greater impact. The film depicts trials, tribulations, success stories, and the Hope guiding the program forward.
Through the first-hand accounts of local volunteers fighting to save their coral reefs, see the program’s growth into one of the biggest and most ambitious restoration training programs ever established.
“The whole purpose of the film was to see the next chapter. So Indonesia had been this big success story for MSS and they'd managed to regrow the reef back,” Shearman said recently.
“They'd got this really spectacular fauna. The fish were coming back. The coral was beginning to reproduce, was amazing. The stage that we joined was where they wanted to spread the message out to the world. And so that's where we joined, where the program was being sort of trialed in various other places.”
“And it just amplified the growth and what they found out was that, they're getting three to four times faster coral regrowth and natural coral. So they knew they'd hit on something spectacular.”
Shearman specializes in making films about global issues, and all over the world.
“I like to champion voices that don't often get a platform,” he said, noting his newest film is about a man who’s tetraplegic – paralyzed from the neck down, with one working lung and had a dream he would dive with sharks.
“In this day and age there are not just in America, but across the globe, there are big movements against people caring for their environment, it seems. And it's become a political hot potato per se.”
“I think the film is unusual and for me, I'll leave it to others to judge, but special in the way that we are able to give platform to those voices who would rarely have access to a global platform,” Shearman said. “There's something that Dave Smith said to me which I think is extraordinary. It changed my perception, the way that we think about coral reefs. If you were a farmer on the land, you might have fields that are becoming less productive, so you leave them for a couple of years, you let them go fallow, or you might put some nutrients into the soil and leave them for a while and then farm somewhere else. And that is a cyclical thing in your farm.
“Dave was saying, there's no reason why we can't, fishing communities can't do that with their coral,” he noted.
So far, the MSS team has worked alongside its partners to install more than 87,000 Reef Stars with approximately 1.3 million corals attached.
“As a brand, we have a wide-reaching global platform, and we recognize it’s our responsibility to use that platform to help fuel positive change,” Mindy Barry, Global Vice President of Marketing, Sheba brand, said in the film release. “The release of ‘Reef Builders’ is a powerful new chapter in our larger mission behind the Sheba Hope Grows program. Through the documentary, we want to inspire and educate people on coral’s plight and its importance to our everyday lives.”
An April 2025 review of the doc on stylist.co.uk said: “It can sometimes make for devastating viewing, but Reef Builders asks the questions none of us really wants to ask ourselves – how has it come to this point?”
“Ultimately, though, this is a documentary about hope….Seeing the reef brought back to life on the remote island of Bontosua is emotional stuff. The idea that all it takes is human ingenuity, connection and dedication to reverse some of the wrongs we’ve inflicted on the natural world comes as a powerful awakening – one that will stay with you long after the documentary has ended.”
The review said “Reef Builders” is “unique because the narrative comes from the voices of the indigenous fishermen and divers who work alongside the marine biologists to make their stories heard.”
“Reef Builders” is available to stream on Amazon, and to learn more about it and the Sheba Hope Grows program, visit ShebaHopeGrows.com. For tickets to the March 1 Davenport showing, visit qcenvironmentalfilmseries.org.
This story was produced by WVIK, Quad Cities NPR. We rely on financial support from our listeners and readers to provide coverage of the issues that matter to the Quad Cities region and beyond. As someone who values the content created by WVIK's news department, please consider making a financial contribution to support our work.News
