Durban - The Wavescape Surf Film Festival at the Durban International Film Festival (DIFF) will be headlined by the African premiere of smash-hit feature documentary Heavy Water, by California-based South African Michael Oblowitz.
The film is one of 22 this year, including features and shorts from South Africa, Sierra Leone, Namibia, Morocco, Sri Lanka, Australia, Hawaii, New Zealand and Canada.
Wavescape director Steve Pike, aka Spike, says that the line-up for the festival was one of the most exciting in years. “We’re honoured 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.”
Heavy Water: The Life and Times of Nathan Fletcher will open the Wavescape at the Bay of Plenty outdoor screening on July 22.
It promises an entertaining night, says Pike. “It’s a feature documentary, but views like an action film. About the wild antic of big-wave legend Nathan Fletcher, it also chronicles his relationships with the colourful, gritty characters of Hawaii’s North Shore. One highlight is when Fletcher enacts a dream to jump out of a helicopter with a surfboard right onto a giant wave, and surf it. He’s the only guy that’s been able to successfully do it - and he pulls it off. It’s mind-blowing.”
From July 23-27, Wavescape moves to Arena 5, uShaka Marine World for five 6pm screenings, which are free. The line-up includes three short films and two features, the Soulful Perilous Sea and Church of the Open Sky, a master piece of surf film-making by Australian director Nathan Oldfield.
Bethany Hamilton, who lost an arm to a shark attack.
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 pros and big wave riders, despite her disability.
The midweek highlight is the documentary Secrets Of Desert Point, a piece of historical story telling by Director Ira Opper, who chronicles how a young Californian and his friends stumble across a perfect wave in the early 1970s from leaky boats among the remote islands of Indonesia.
Pike says there are also excellent films about travel - 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 an 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.
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.
All Wavescape Surf Film Festival films are free. For the opening bring picnics and chairs.
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