Heavy Water[/caption]
The 14th edition of the Wavescape Surf Film Festival takes place at the Durban International Film Festival, headlined by the African premiere of smash-hit feature documentary Heavy Water, by California-based South African Michael Oblowitz on July 22.
Heavy Water: The Life and Times of Nathan Fletcher will open Wavescape on Sunday July 22. The film is one of 22 films Wavescape brings to Durban this year, including features and shorts from Sierra Leone, Namibia, South Africa, Morocco, Sri Lanka, Australia, Hawaii, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and Canada, among others.
Wavescape Director Steve Pike, aka Spike, says that the lineup for DIFF was one of the most exciting in years. “We’re honored to have several other African premieres, such as the incredible story of Bethany Hamilton, who lost an arm to a shark; and the gritty documentary Secrets of Desert Point, a piece of pioneering surf history.”
From Monday July 23 to Friday July 27, Wavescape moves to Arena 5, Village Walk, uShaka Marine World for five 6pm screenings, which are free. The screenings at uShaka open with a lineup of three short films and two features, the soulful Perilous Sea and Church of the Open Sky, a master piece of surf filmmaking by Australian director Nathan Oldfield.
Wavescape closes with Bethany Hamilton: Unstoppable, the untold story of Hamilton’s journey from childhood to motherhood and how she lost an arm to a tiger shark as a child. However, her relentless determination turns her into one of surfing’s great pro surfers and big wave riders, despite her disability. Bethany rewrites the phrase “Surfs Like a Girl.”
The midweek highlight is the documentary Secrets Of Desert Point, an excellent piece of historical story telling by Director Ira Opper, who chronicles the story of how a young Californian and his friends stumble across a perfect wave in the early 1980s from leaky boats among the remote islands of Indonesia, but it was fraught with dangers, from drugs to pirates and deadly coral reefs.
Spike says there are also excellent films about travel – the quest for reach for something precious, like the soulful travels of a Moroccan who brings clean water to the poor communities of Africa while working his way towards the infamous waves of Skeleton Bay in Namibia. The Seawolf is pure surf soul as we follow “eight surfers on a two-year journey to remote places to find the most dangerous waves on terrifyingly shallow rock slabs. Filmed in high definition 4k on Red Cameras, this is a enriching viewing experience”.
Several films tackle the emotional side of the human condition, such as Finding Purpose, a short film about Durban big wave surfer Tammy-Lee Smith who finds purpose riding big waves after pain and loss. A Million Waves tells the story of Kadiatu Kamara, 19, who is left to face the Ebola epidemic in Sierra Leone alone after her dad dies. She finds hope surfing in the waves.
In Visit, we travel with a shy, former street kid from Durban on his trip to England to visit the land of the funders who saved him from disappearing down a dark and dangerous rabbit hole. There is Adam, an award-winning short film about a Cape Town surfer diagnosed with a chronic form of cancer; or Awen, in which we see the uncomfortable reality of a young Chinese man who clashes with his mother because she wants him to become a fisherman like his ancestors, but he just wants to go surfing.
However, beyond the pain of being human come films to celebrate the visual poetry of the natural world, and the spiritual enrichment that the act of surfing and being in the ocean brings. Sea Lone eulogises some of the world’s top women longboarders on a surf trip to Sri Lanka.
Shape Qui Rit is a cute short about a two year old girl who “shapes” her dream surfboard; Night Rose sees an elderly lady in England transported by a vision into the ocean for a night surf; Black Rain catches a session in the tropics that cracks with the sea surface chatter of a thunderstorm, while The Edge Of North follows top British surfers to Scotland for a refreshing surf trip on the doorstep of their home.SECRETS OF DESERT POINT
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HEAVY WATER and BETHANY HAMILTON: UNSTOPPABLE Among Films at DIFF’s 2018 Wavescape Surf Film Festival
[caption id="attachment_30576" align="aligncenter" width="1488"] Heavy Water[/caption]
The 14th edition of the Wavescape Surf Film Festival takes place at the Durban International Film Festival, headlined by the African premiere of smash-hit feature documentary Heavy Water, by California-based South African Michael Oblowitz on July 22.
Heavy Water: The Life and Times of Nathan Fletcher will open Wavescape on Sunday July 22. The film is one of 22 films Wavescape brings to Durban this year, including features and shorts from Sierra Leone, Namibia, South Africa, Morocco, Sri Lanka, Australia, Hawaii, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and Canada, among others.
Wavescape Director Steve Pike, aka Spike, says that the lineup for DIFF was one of the most exciting in years. “We’re honored to have several other African premieres, such as the incredible story of Bethany Hamilton, who lost an arm to a shark; and the gritty documentary Secrets of Desert Point, a piece of pioneering surf history.”
From Monday July 23 to Friday July 27, Wavescape moves to Arena 5, Village Walk, uShaka Marine World for five 6pm screenings, which are free. The screenings at uShaka open with a lineup of three short films and two features, the soulful Perilous Sea and Church of the Open Sky, a master piece of surf filmmaking by Australian director Nathan Oldfield.
Wavescape closes with Bethany Hamilton: Unstoppable, the untold story of Hamilton’s journey from childhood to motherhood and how she lost an arm to a tiger shark as a child. However, her relentless determination turns her into one of surfing’s great pro surfers and big wave riders, despite her disability. Bethany rewrites the phrase “Surfs Like a Girl.”
The midweek highlight is the documentary Secrets Of Desert Point, an excellent piece of historical story telling by Director Ira Opper, who chronicles the story of how a young Californian and his friends stumble across a perfect wave in the early 1980s from leaky boats among the remote islands of Indonesia, but it was fraught with dangers, from drugs to pirates and deadly coral reefs.
Spike says there are also excellent films about travel – the quest for reach for something precious, like the soulful travels of a Moroccan who brings clean water to the poor communities of Africa while working his way towards the infamous waves of Skeleton Bay in Namibia. The Seawolf is pure surf soul as we follow “eight surfers on a two-year journey to remote places to find the most dangerous waves on terrifyingly shallow rock slabs. Filmed in high definition 4k on Red Cameras, this is a enriching viewing experience”.
Several films tackle the emotional side of the human condition, such as Finding Purpose, a short film about Durban big wave surfer Tammy-Lee Smith who finds purpose riding big waves after pain and loss. A Million Waves tells the story of Kadiatu Kamara, 19, who is left to face the Ebola epidemic in Sierra Leone alone after her dad dies. She finds hope surfing in the waves.
In Visit, we travel with a shy, former street kid from Durban on his trip to England to visit the land of the funders who saved him from disappearing down a dark and dangerous rabbit hole. There is Adam, an award-winning short film about a Cape Town surfer diagnosed with a chronic form of cancer; or Awen, in which we see the uncomfortable reality of a young Chinese man who clashes with his mother because she wants him to become a fisherman like his ancestors, but he just wants to go surfing.
However, beyond the pain of being human come films to celebrate the visual poetry of the natural world, and the spiritual enrichment that the act of surfing and being in the ocean brings. Sea Lone eulogises some of the world’s top women longboarders on a surf trip to Sri Lanka.
Shape Qui Rit is a cute short about a two year old girl who “shapes” her dream surfboard; Night Rose sees an elderly lady in England transported by a vision into the ocean for a night surf; Black Rain catches a session in the tropics that cracks with the sea surface chatter of a thunderstorm, while The Edge Of North follows top British surfers to Scotland for a refreshing surf trip on the doorstep of their home.
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Films from Rory Kennedy and Jennifer Peedom Among San Sebastian International Film Festival Savage Cinema Lineup
[caption id="attachment_23978" align="aligncenter" width="1200"]
TAKE EVERY WAVE: THE LIFE OF LAIRD HAMILTON[/caption]
The latest films from filmmakers Rory Kennedy and Jennifer Peedom are among six films rounding up the fifth edition of Savage Cinema at the San Sebastian International Film Festival. Savage Cinema is a non-competitive section in collaboration with Red Bull Media House, which specializes in sports and adventure films.
Peedom, BAFTA Best Documentary nominee for Sherpa in 2016, presents Mountain, a poetical film honoring the beauty of summits underlied with narration of Willem Dafoe and a special soundtrack, that will see its premiere in San Sebastian in collaboration with the Bilbao Mendi Film Festival. An ambitious project which, with Tout là-haut / To the Top, first fictional movie to appear in Savage Cinema, starring Bérénice Bejo and directed by Serge Hazanavicius, opens the section to new genres.
The search for paradise, a recurring theme in the Savage Cinema program, returns with Secrets of Desert Point, one of the few adventures of the 20th Century still to be told. Ira Opper, pioneer producer and distributor of action sports content, recovers images recorded by Bill Heick, lending shape to that savage surf discovery which has remained secret for 40 years.
Under an Arctic Sky, by photographer Chris Burkard, represents new forms of exploration, where imagination and technology are key to finding new nirvanas, this time in the freezing coastline of Iceland.
The final two films are biographical movies about exceptional lives. Take Every Wave (Sundance 2017) is a biopic signed by Rory Kennedy, director of Ghosts of Abu Ghraib (winner of an Emmy in 2007) and Last Days in Vietnam (nominated for a Best Documentary Feature Academy Award in 2015), documenting one of the few surfers to enter popular American imaginary Laird Hamilton. While the sport is developing, there are new icons evolving, one of them being Kai Lenny, multiple World Champion, whose progression and connectivity with the ocean is portrayed in Paradigm Lost.
2017 San Sebastian International Film Festival Savage Cinema
MOUNTAIN JENNIFER PEEDOM (AUSTRALIA) A unique cinematic and musical collaboration between the Australian Chamber Orchestra and BAFTA-nominated director Jennifer Peedom, Mountain is a dazzling exploration of our obsession with mountains. Only three centuries ago, climbing a mountain would have been considered close to lunacy. The idea scarcely existed that wild landscapes might hold any sort of attraction. Peaks were places of peril, not beauty. Why, then, are we now drawn to mountains in our millions? Mountain shows us the spellbinding force of high places – and their ongoing power to shape our lives and our dreams. PARADIGM LOST JOHN DECESARE (USA) For Kai Lenny, the ocean is a playground as long as you are having fun. Kai is continually challenging the notion of what a SURFER is, from riding huge waves to open ocean swells, on any means conceivable. Whether testing himself competitively or sharing the stoke of riding with friends, there are only waves and endless possibilities that come with a mind wide open. SECRETS OF DESERT POINT IRA OPPER (USA) In the early eighties, while sailing in crude leaky boats off remote Lombok island in Indo, young California surfer Bill Heick and his friends stumbled across the perfect wave. As treacherous as it was beautiful, this motley crew of modern-day surf argonauts named it ‘Desert Point’. These pioneers kept their treasure off the map for more than a decade and made it their life’s mission to surf uncrowded Desert Point at the highest level possible…no matter the cost. Join us for a journey on one of the last great dirtbag adventures of the 20th Century. One passed through three generations. And learning that if want to keep paradise, you need to stand up for it. TAKE EVERY WAVE: THE LIFE OF LAIRD HAMILTON RORY KENNEDY (USA) An in-depth uncompromising portrait of a living surf legend, Take Every Wave examines the life of an extraordinary individual fuelled by fear, ambition and challenge. This rip-roaring account of his life gives us a rare and intimate glimpse into what drives an elite athlete to follow the rules or break them; revealing how he changed the face of the sport, the legacy he built, and the price an athlete pays for greatness. TOUT LÀ-HAUT / TO THE TOP SERGE HAZANAVICIUS (FRANCE) Scott, a young gifted snowboarder, has one dream: to be number one. He wants to do what no one has ever done: climb mount Everest, and ride the ultimate descent down the Hornbein Couloir. Once in Chamonix, the riders Mecca, he crosses paths with Pierrick, a free-ride veteran turned mountain guide. Scott knows that this is the encounter that could take him to the top. UNDER AN ARCTIC SKY CHRIS BURKARD (ICELAND) The film follows six surfers along with adventure photographer Chris Burkard and filmmaker Ben Weiland as they seek out unknown swell in the remote fjords of Iceland’s Hornstrandir Nature Reserve. Chartering a boat, they depart from Isafjordur on the cusp of the largest storm to make landfall in twenty-five years. With the knowledge that storms bring legendary swell the crew are optimistic, but face failure when the storm forces them back to shore. Making the decision to carry the expedition on by road they experience the brutality of Iceland’s winter and begin to question if searching out the unknown is worth risking their lives for. Despite setbacks the team pushes on and finds that uncertainty is the best ingredient for discovering the unimaginable.