DECEMBER means it is time for fun, surf and movies at the Wavescape Festival in Cape Town.
The 11th Wavescape Film Festival will once again feature a line-up of top surfing films at Africa’s most beautiful outdoor cinema – Clifton Fourth Beach – to mark the opening night.
Up to 5 000 people are expected to descend on the beach with picnic blankets and baskets, if the weather holds.
Six of the latest short and medium films will be screened free of charge from 9pm tomorrow, and this year a record 33 films from around the world will be screened.
Of the six films which will be screened on the opening night, three document South African stories:
The Mill Park Series is a gritty promo for urban renewal, filmed at the Gardens Skate Park in Cape Town;
Disguised by Nature offers an insight into top South African surfer Bianca Buitendag; and
Ode to Simplicity is a short about wooden surfboard craftsman, Andrew Strode.
The other films for screening are:
The lyrical, moody short film about cold water surfing, Edges of Sanity;
I Had Too Much to Dream Last Night which features multiple drone footage of amazing waves; and
Pipeline and Kelly Slater is a jaw-dropping account of every huge wave ridden on the Hawaiian North Shore last winter.
The Save Our Seas Foundation will entertain and educate filmgoers with awareness activations about sharks with their #goodsharkkarma campaign.
Next week films continue at the Brass Bell in Kalk Bay from Sunday to Wednesday and at the Labia Cinema on Orange Street from Thursday to December 14.
Films at Clifton Fourth Beach are free and will cost R35 at the Labia and Brass Bell.
Films which celebrate surf culture and ocean sustainability have been chosen and documentaries feature strongly during this year’s Wavescape.
Look out for Uncharted Waters which follows Aussie surfer Wayne Lynch’s turbulent life running from conscription to the Vietnam War; Flux: Redefining Women’s Surfing which explores the sexual exploitation of women in surfing; The Cradle of Storms which tracks a journey through the remote Aleutian Arc of Alaska; Stephanie in the Water which recounts the tale of Stephanie Gilmore who dominated women’s surfing until a violent turn of events; and Out in the Lineup which follows champion surfer David Wakefield on his quest to deconstruct the gay taboo in surfing.
Also remember to check out the Sea Change outdoor photo exhibition on the Sea Point promenade until April.
• For more details, check out www.wavescapefestival.com.