The life of Rich Harbour, presented in the recent documentary “Harbour Chronicles: Shaping a Legacy,” has won the “Audience Choice Award” and other awards at the Newport Beach Film Festival and is coming back to the Bay Theatre in Seal Beach for a special showing on Saturday, Nov. 29.
Bay Theatre manager Ben Ahle said it is a fitting “Thanksgiving” showing for the theatre, especially since the film was the first to be shown when the Bay Theatre re-opened its doors earlier this year following a multi-year, multi-million-dollar renovation.
According to Chris Sardelis, the retired firefighter behind the making of the film, the local biopic not only won the “Audience Choice Award at the recent Newport Beach Film Festival but also took home the award for the “Best Action Sports Feature.”
Ahle said doors will open at 6:00 p.m. for the Sat., Nov. 29 showing.
The film chronicles the life of the late Rich Harbour, whose dream was to start a surfboard business, and who also just happened to be a film buff who purchased a 16 mm camera and documented much of the early moments of Seal Beach when it was considered one of the best surfing locations in the world.
“I got some good news,” said Sardelis on a recent Instagram post, “The Harbor Chronicles just won the audience choice award at the Newport Beach Film Festival 2025, and we’re coming back home and we’re playing across the street at the Bay Theatre on November 29,” he said.
Ironically, Harbour Surfboards, the surfboard business founded by Rich, is located across Main Street from the Bay Theatre.
“The movie starts at 7:30,” he said, “but before the movie we’re going to have a couple of special features,” said Sardelis.
One of them is a 16-minute short featuring additional footage shot by Rich during his life that did not make the movie, Sardelis said, and the other will be the auctioning of a special skateboard and the first surfboard ever shaped by Rich Harbour.
Sardelis and his life were captured in hours of priceless films shot by Harbour as a young man in the 60s, and 70s, and in doing so, he captured what was considered the birth of the surfing industry on 16 mm film.
During the premiere, in a theatre filled with locals who once filled the beaches to see the local surfers ride the waves, there was plenty of applause as one by one, they acknowledged their teenage surfer favorites as they hit the big screen.
Apparently, there are plenty of leftover outtakes that Sardelis now says will be shown as a special treat during the special Nov. 29 show.
“This is some great stuff that’s never been seen before,” said Sardelis.
Ahle said it was gratifying to know the theatre’s first film has already started winning film festival awards, and “we are happy to have it back Nov. 29.”
Tickets are available at the Bay Theatre website, and raffle tickets for the items being raffled during the show are available at Harbour Surfboards on Main Street.