I work at a college that uses our theatre here to show films (Spiderman 2, Lord of the Rings etc.) for a dollar. I thought it would be a good idea to show a surf movie. What I need now are suggestions from anybody, what should I show? Also, if anybody has information on how to get the prints of said films, I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks.
Get Free Ride third edition: Full on changing of the guard with one of the best tip 20 surfers in the history of the sport. Also Surfers the movie would be ok.
“Singlefin: Yellow” very quickly became my favorite surf vid of all time. SHOW IT!!!
Considering it is going to be an audience of many non-surfers, I’d show Step Into Liquid. I watched this movie with both surfers and non-surfers and everyone enjoyed it. It has a lot of fun, human interest stories that center around surfing but are really just about stoked people living life. Well done. For the surfers in the crowd, it has some great wave footage also. Surfing for Life is cool this way to but without the great surf footage that gets the surfers jazzed.
I would not say that these are my favorite surf movies though. That goes to Morning of the Earth. But, considering my wife fell asleep on the couch within 15mins of it start, I would say that it has a narrower appeal.
Two years ago TNT or TBS or one of those Turner stations showed old surf flicks on Monday nights.
Do some Googling. Names like Bud Brown, Bruce Brown, and Macgillivray Freeman should help get you started.
where is your school? in other words, is it a school with a fairly large, knowledgeable surf population, or is there a minimal surf crew there?this might help you focus on what movie to show.
Five Summer Stories would be a good choice I think. It was made in the mid 70’s? (maybe?) and has a great soundtrack that even people who haven’t thought about waves for the past 30 years will light with up a smile when reminded of the music.
I have to agree - Step Into Liquid is good for a mostly non-surfing audience, as would be some of MacGillivray-Freeman’s output - Five Summer Stories especially, Severson’s Pacific Vibrations and more. Hal Jepsen’s work, lots of others that were well filmed and well produced and mebbe looking for more of a crossover audience, especially some of the Australians like Alby Falzon . I’m absolutely certain I have left out quite a few.
The newer, shot-on-video, straight-to-video stuff tends to be surf porn: if you’ve seen the first five minutes of one; 'Wave Slashers 666 " or whatever, you’ve seen the entire genre and never, ever need to see another one. Kinda like the worst sort of porn flicks, it’s repetitive, plotless crap guaranteed to turn off anybody. I spent two months at a surf camp that had a stack of such tripe as tall as I am, and if I never see another one I’ll be perfectly happy.
The trick is, what formats can this college theater play, 16mm, 35mm?? Lots of stuff available on VHS, some on DVD, but I think the 35mm prints and even 16mm prints are gonna be much harder to come by. You might want to try www.imdb.com - the Internet Movie Database, or possibly a search for the film maker’s names to find their agents and who has the rights and distribution.
hope that’s of help
doc…
The school is located in virginia beach. Although the waves aren’t always going off, the stoke of many surfers always is. Sprout was here not too long ago and maybe 30 people showed ( i believe because of lack of publicity and 10 bucks to see it!). I’m not out to make any money but it would be nice to cover my expenses and I do plan on publicizing it everywhere I can. The school can show video on projectors but more importantly we can show 32mm films on the big screen, which is what I want to show it on. I’m leaning towards 5 summer stories, Surfing Hollow days, Single fin Yellow (although since it’s recent it’s probably expensive) Please keep coming up with more suggestions and any concerns I might not have thought of. Thanks
Oh, I forgot to mention. It’s open to the public, not just students. Actually, students get in free.
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Get Free Ride third edition: Full on changing of the guard with one of the best tip 20 surfers in the history of the sport. Also Surfers the movie would be ok.
What! Third Edition…you mean the one with Cheyne in all those barrels? Is that edition out yet?
Where?
Rolliges,
You know me too well. No its not out yet, but there are some bootlegs. Check wewalk.com in oz.