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On a remote island 870 kilometres from their designated breast screening facility, a group of wāhine from Rēkohu / the Chatham Islands turn a biennial “Boobie Trip” into a ritual of humour, solidarity and quiet defiance against geographic inequality.

Filmed in New Zealand on Rēkohu / Wharekauri / Chatham Islands and in Ōtautahi / Christchurch in 2025, ‘Girls Flight out’ was a Finalist in the Best New Zealand Short Film category at ‪Doc Edge festival this year.

Girls’ Flight Out is a 28-minute documentary that follows women from the remote Chatham Islands as they travel 870 kilometres to Ōtautahi / Christchurch aboard the “Boobie Bus” (an Air Chathams flight) for life-saving mammograms. It highlights health equity, early breast cancer detection and the rural healthcare gaps faced by remote communities in Aotearoa / New Zealand. We spoke to the film’s director Anna Frances Pearson about the film and how it came to be.

When did you get the idea to make this documentary?

It was an idea I had when I was on the Chatham’s back in 2015 and it took a decade to percolate and come to life – I had to find the right skills and confidence and also the right people to make it happen. I started making short films around 2021 and each project has grown and taught me new things. So, when the Girls project took off, I was really fortunate that it timed perfectly with the Toi Ōtautahi Incubator programme.

How did the Incubator help, do you think?

This project was more ambitious than I first realised, and so it helped enormously. There were a couple of things that i found really invaluable and the first was just the experience of meeting other creatives – there was a lot of conversation around giving yourself permission to do these things – that was the first thing. That gave me a huge amount of confidence to take risks. Often, you’re on your own doing these things and being able to meet other people making things was really cool.

And obviously having an assigned mentor was helpful?

That was amazing. I’d seen an interview with filmmaker Vanessa Wells in the newspaper a year earlier – and I’d said to my husband, “I really want to meet that lady,” so, when it came to having a mentor I hoped to get her and I did!

How much did having someone with real world experience help?

Massively. Because Vanessa has made films before and had made a feature length documentary – she was so knowledgeable – she would joke about all the ‘important but dull stuff’ like release forms and chain of title – which I didn’t even know about. I also had a lot of help from Olivia Webb who helped me a lot with budgets and things. All of that was really awesome. Having a bit of cheerleader is helpful. I just think it’s the most amazing programme.

How happy were you with the finished product?

Really happy. We were just a crew of three, myself and Nick Kowalski and Ocean Mead, and I think we feel we made the best film we could with the budget and the time we had. I’m super proud of it, and to get it into Doc Edge was the ultimate goal, so I’m super happy.

Tell me about the Doc Edge process?

It’s quite competitive. We applied in December last year and hoped for the best. When we got in, it was a huge sense of achievement and validation that we’d made something that other people liked. It meant we got to see our work on a big screen and with audiences. It premiered in July and we’ve now decided to release it on YouTube – so that people can watch it for free there.

What was it like watching it for the first time?

It was quite emotional. I caught myself watching the audience rather than the film. Mostly though, I was in awe of the ladies we had on screen. We had quite a few women share their stories, and we were so privileged they trusted us with that.

So now the film is available for audiences to watch for free on YouTube?

The project actually broke even which was satisfying and so we just wanted it to be out in the world – our sponsors are organisations like Breast Cancer NZ and so we wanted to be able to show it and share it. It’s also going to play on Air NZ inflight entertainment from December, which we’re really happy about.  I think it is a very universal subject matter, and it has a really kiwi feel to it – so I really hope audiences enjoy it.

You can watch the documentary in full by clicking here.