Award hatrick for River Dog | Wairarapa News | Local News in Wairarapa

River Dog - a half-hour documentary about a South Wairarapa war over cattle in the Pahaoa River - has won a hat-trick of awards at the 2011 Reel Earth Film Festival.

River Dog was directed by Otago University student James Muir as part of a master's degree in natural history film-making and was produced alongside fellow student, Oscar Hunter.

The film won the Best New Zealand Short Film Award and the People's Choice Award at the 2011 reel Earth Film Festival that opened in Palmerston North at the weekend and also captured the Best Emerging Filmmaker Award for Muir.

River Dog centres on the four years of battle waged by the director's father, Grant Muir, to keep cattle from the Pahaoa River.

The film will also screen at the London International Documentary Film Festival this week and has been invited to screen at the Milano Film Festival in September, the director says.

The film has been described as a "visually stunning, thought-provoking and challenging" view of its theme and was nominated in an unprecedented five categories for the Reel Earth festival against a field of 160 entries from around the world.

Muir said the film had won advocates including Albert Rebergen (Forest and Bird), Bryce Johnson (CEO NZ Fish and Game), and Mike Joy (Massey University).

"The regional council is obligated to ensure that the [river grazing] activity stops immediately. And even if in the future the regional council wanted to put a rule in a plan permitting stock grazing in water, they can't," Mr Johnson said.

"This [River Dog] is the story of one man making a stand about something he believes in, and how challenging that can be.

"The issue being raised is about the protection and care of our fresh water."

Fish and Game spokeswoman Corina Jordan described as "inexcusable" the lack of action by the regional council over matters raised in the film.

"The Greater Wellington Regional Council have neglected the Pahaoa River by working against the provisions for freshwater protection provided in their own regional freshwater plan," she said.

"In this case, they are breaking their own rules."