Friday, April 16th 2010 – 7PM
Cycle (Canada), Jim Bizzocchi
Preshow (6PM) and intermission video will feature ambient video works by Jim Bizzocchi.
Jim is a moving image artist and assistant professor at SFU. His Ambient Video series of works – Rockface (2002), Streaming Video (2004), Winterscape (2006), Cycle (2009) – explores a new genre for high-definition video that might be best described as ‘living paintings’, or ‘ambient video’. Ambient video is the “slow-form” reversal of forty years of intense development of the fast-paced television “short-form”.
Turtle: The Incredible Journey (UK), Nick Stringer, 80 min – Canadian Premiere
Presented in partnership with the David Suzuki Foundation
This visually stunning feature film is the story of a little loggerhead turtle, as she follows in the path of her ancestors on one of the most extraordinary journeys in the natural world.
Born on a beach in Florida, she rides the Gulf Stream up towards the Arctic and ultimately swims around the entire North Atlantic across to Africa and back to the beach where she was born. But the odds are stacked against her; just one in ten thousand turtles survive the journey.
She faces many hazards, her siblings are lost in the doldrums of the Sargasso Sea, she comes face to face with creatures of the deep and nearly dies at the hands of fishermen. She travels up north but she drifts from her life current, the Gulf Stream, into dangerously cold waters.
When she finally reaches the Azores on the other side of the Atlantic, she sees the greatest celebration of life on the Earth as sperm whale and baitballs explode from the water. But deep and powerful changes are happening in the oceans – the fish are disappearing, sea levels are rising, the turtle’s birthing beach could be washed away and bring a way of life to an end.
Then her calling comes, she must return to her beach. When she finally reaches the shores of Florida, 25 years will have passed!
Under a million stars, she crawls out of the sea to lay her own eggs and keeps the Turtle´s Journey alive.
Turtle: The Incredible Journey has all the elements of a great epic: suspense, adventure, despair and hope.
Featured Presentation: The Aquatic Serengeti (Canada), Dr. Brian Keating, 60 min
A spirit lifting journey into some of the planets best ocean locations.
Brian Keating has been travelling the wilds of the world for over a quarter of a century, exploring some 50 countries on all 7 continents. His passion for remote travel will be revealed as only Brian can do, with his buoyant method of story telling. Punctuated throughout with humour and personal anecdotes, he’ll illustrate his presentation with his own live-narrated video segments.
He promises a journey to oceans near and far, into gin-clear tropical-ocean depths with unbelievable creatures, to remote northern fjords accessible only by kayak, and to places where the largest and most dramatic of the worlds aquatic creatures live and thrive, leaving the observer overwhelmed with satisfaction. His stories, illustrated with his dramatic filming, will serve to reconfirm the value of our collective understanding of the importance of wild places.
His presentation is designed to inspire and enthuse, offering hope for a better tomorrow.
Black People Don’t Swim (South Africa), Lucilla Blankenberg, 48 min – North American Premiere
Cut to a beanie-clad comedian standing in a spotlight: “When white people dance, they swim. When black people swim, they drown.” This documentary follows junior longboard champion Kwezi Qika during an episode in his life (literally). At 18years old Kwezi was South Africa’s junior surfing champion. He was also the first black South African to ever win his country’s most prestigious surfing tournament. This film investigates myth and stereotype, which is chucked into the trash, and hails the sacrifice made by his domestic worker mum.
Saturday, April 17th 2010 – 7PM
Cycle (Canada), Jim Bizzocchi
Preshow (6PM) and intermission video will feature ambient video works by Jim Bizzocchi.
Jim is a moving image artist and assistant professor at SFU. His Ambient Video series of works – Rockface (2002), Streaming Video (2004), Winterscape (2006), Cycle (2009) – explores a new genre for high-definition video that might be best described as ‘living paintings’, or ‘ambient video’. Ambient video is the “slow-form” reversal of forty years of intense development of the fast-paced television “short-form”.
Red Gold (USA), Ben Knight & Travis Rummel, 55 min
Considering the future of Bristol Bay Alaska; home to the world’s two most prolific salmon runs. These rivers have supported a thriving fishing industry for thousands of years. Now, a proposed gold and copper mine at the river’s headwaters threatens not only the fish, but a way of life. Winner of “Best Culture” award at the 2009 San Francisco Ocean Film Festival, amongst many others.
Harvester (California), Scott Walker, 15 min – Canadian Premiere
A cinematic ocean documentary that explores the variety of subtle differences that makes a California urchin diver’s life so unique. We aim our audience to plunge into and explore the culture of commercial urchin divers and see how they interact within their unique community, balancing work, family, and transition through an array of newly imposed environmental restrictions. The characters lead us past the traditional fisherman stereotypes, revealing the possible end of an era and creation of a new breed of environmentally conscious divers.
Runman’s Groms: Lil Ray and his Friends (Hawaii), Ray Runman, 6 min – Canadian Premiere
Runman’s latest film about Lil Ray the grom, other groms, and adults that act like groms. Winner of the Viewers Choice Award for Best Short at the 2009 New York Surf Film Festival.
Ocean Gybe (Canada), Andrew Naysmith, 5 min – World Premiere
In the summer of 2007, brothers Ryan and Bryson Robertson along with good friend Hugh Patterson began their dream and departed La Paz, Mexico on a three-year circumnavigation of the globe. They are surfers, sailors, and explorers. Their adventure is a voyage of exploration, research, and education. Their dream to circumnavigate the globe and document the state of the oceans and beaches they visit while searching out the best waves and meet new people has become reality.
This film will be introduced by Ocean Gybe crew member Ryan Robertson
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Terra Antarctica: Rediscovering the Seventh Continent (USA), Jon Bowermaster, 50 min
For six weeks John Bowermaster explored the Antarctic Peninsula by sea kayak, sailboat, foot and small plane, observing the fast changing evolution of this most remote place. Impacted by climate change – temperatures have warmed along the Peninsula faster than anywhere on the planet during the past 50 years – this part of Antarctica is also experiencing a boom in tourism and nations fighting over who owns what as its ice slowly disappears. This National Geographic-sponsored exploration is a one-of-a-kind look at Antarctica from a unique perspective – sea level. Winner of “Best Ocean Issues” at the 2009 Blue Ocean Film Festival
Out There (USA), Teton Gravity Research, 45 min – Canadian Premiere
Presented in partnership with the Vancouver Chapter of Surfrider
A 16mm and HiDef surf film, Out There showcases today’s most progressive surfing, while considering humankind’s impact on the world’s oceans, beaches and waves. Through the experiences of surfers and the locals they meet throughout their travel, the film takes a thought-provoking look into the environmental destruction threatening known and unknown surf spots. Out There questions impending threats to Trestles in Southern California, pulp mill pollution in Southern Chile and unrestricted development along Hawaii’s famed North Shore and in Tahiti.
Birthright (California), Sean Mullens, 6 min – World Premiere
Birthright is a film about the struggle and inspired triumph of the human spirit. At age seventeen, Michael Mitchell became a quadriplegic as a result of a surfing accident. This film documents Michael’s daily journey from wheelchair to water’s edge, where surfing a hybrid surf kayak enables him to transcend his physical limitations and to be his most natural self.