The Craving
USA (2006) 60 minutes
DIRECTOR: Peck Euwer
World Premiere
[ show times ]
The Craving explores the crests and troughs of one of life’s most powerful addictions: surfing. Perhaps no sport inspires such rabid obsession as surfing’s search for the perfect wave. The Craving takes us deeply into this obsession.
The film inundates the viewer with images of surfing’s elite; surf gods that appear in almost every aspect of pop culture; movies, TV commercials, magazines and posters. However, Craving takes us beyond these superstars, to the stories of five ordinary surfers with extraordinary devotion. Along the way, Craving explores the mystery of surfing’s psycho-spiritual allure and examines the ways in which people from varied walks of life tread the tightrope between carefree recreation and compulsion, meditation and mania, fun and dysfunction.
The Craving features an unlikely cast of characters. A mother blends the responsibilities of raising two young children with a near daily surf ritual. An accomplished board shaper and big wave rider struggles to connect with family and friends who don’t understand his obsession. Two young brothers flirt with surf stardom that threatens to make them grow up all too soon. Finally, a Vietnam veteran and recovered drug abuser identifies surfing’s addictive spell as the most seductive compulsion he has ever known.
Through their stories, Craving provides us with glimpse of the transcendent bliss that surfers seek and that the right wave can provide.
