TUESDAY 7 MARCH – THE GALILEO OPEN AIR CINEMA – KIRSTENBOSCH
AND YET, I REMAIN
South Africa, 2022, 8min
Director: Rick Wall & Dougal Paterson
The Galileo Open Air Cinema, Kirstenbosch, 18:00 Tuesday 7 March
Charismatic Caleb Swanepoel lost his leg to a great white shark in 2015, while surfing in Buffels Bay in the Southern Cape. Rehab was a stepping stone to come back harder and faster, and he returned to the ocean a few weeks later. His life became a headlong rush to succeed and achieve, fuelled by a burning, innate passion. This short film follows his journey while he finally begins to ease up on this all-consuming quest. He begins to slow down to process his trauma, while learning to free dive, an immersive place in the brine where you start to see things differently – the place that helps him come to terms with a body that has been irreversibly changed forever.
BIRTH OF THE ENDLESS SUMMER (Official SA Premiere)
US, South Africa, 2021, 96min
Director: Richard Yelland
The Galileo Open Air Cinema, Kirstenbosch, 18:00 Tuesday 7 March
This is the backstory of the most watched documentary of all (in any genre) The Endless Summer, released in 1965. Emmy Award-winning director Richard Yelland tracks grizzled Californian surf pioneer Dick Metz as he vagabonds the globe from 1958 to 1961, and returns to South Africa decades later. Importantly to us, it chronicles in detail what actually happened – warts and all – when Robert August and Mike Hynson came upon our shores with Bruce Brown to shoot the original. It tells the story of how Dick met John Whitmore, by “happenstance” as the Oom later recalls, which changed the history of surfing forever. A nostalgic Dick, 92, meets up with local surfers and visits old haunts where he shared good times with the Oom and his family.
SATURDAY 11 MARCH – BERTHA MOVIE HOUSE, ISIVIVANA CENTRE, KHAYELITSHA
THE BLACK MERMAID
South Africa, 2022, 9min
Bertha House, Isivavani Centre 10:00 Saturday 11 March
Throughout history, Black communities have had a treacherous relationship with water, depicted as a powerful yet destructive entity in African folklore. This is a story never told before, but necessary now more than ever: a modern day tale of the Black Mermaid, Zandile Ndhlovu, a South African free diver who takes us to discover the magic of the Sardine Run.
SONIC SOUVENIRS EPISODE 1
South Africa, 2019, 20min
Director: Blake Myers
Bertha House, Isivavani Centre 10:00 Saturday 11 March
Sonic Souvenirs is a series of portraits that takes us on an exploration of art, music and surfing with Mikey February as he travels around his homeland, connecting with artists and surfers. Our first episode trails Mikey close to home journeying up and down the East and West coast of South Africa. His soulful surfing style interfaces with the languid pace of the musicians he meets along the way, including the inimitable guitarist Madala Kunene from Durban. The result is a spiritual – almost mystical – visual connection with his natural environment, his surfing an expression of his art.
VALLEY OF A THOUSAND HILLS
South Africa, 2016, 11min
Director: Jess Colquhoun
Bertha House, Isivavani Centre 10:00 Saturday 11 March
Hidden north of Durban, in the rural regions of the Valley of a Thousand Hills, a secret spot for young shredders grows in stature and popularity. The Indigo Skate Camp empowers the local community to learn and grow through the language of skateboarding and the opportunities it brings.
SUNDAY 19 MARCH – SUNBURNT SURF CLUB – LABIA THEATRE
CON DUENDE
France, 2022, 13min
Director: Guillem Cruells
The Labia Theatre Cape Town, 18:00 Sunday 19 March
This languid film profiles the soulful style and alternative spirit of French longboarding savant Clovis Donizetti. From his surfing roots in Biarritz to his self-taught education in literature, philosophy, and music, Donezetti and his fellow countryman Jules Lepecheux travel through southern Spain in search of culturally rich parallels between riding waves and the performing flamenco arts.
NATURAL HIGH (SA Premiere)
US, 2023, 37min
Director: Jack Coleman
The Labia Theatre Cape Town, 18:00 Sunday 19 March
The title of this great little film is self explanatory. Surfing is, of course, the ultimate Natural High. And, as alternative surf writer and finless savant Jamie Brisick says, when you watch a Jack Coleman movie, you plunge into a joyous world filled with peeling waves and sideways drifts and luminous characters and always great music. Kiff surf flick with extra salt and a bigger dose of soul.
TUESDAY 21 MARCH – DEEP SOUTH FILM NIGHT – SCARBOROUGH
THE PHYSICS OF NOSE RIDING (SA Premiere)
New Zealand, 2023, 6min
Director: Lauren Hill
Scarborough Community Centre, Scarborough, 19:30 Tuesday 21 March
There is science behind surfing’s fluid dance. The nose ride is one of surfing’s peak moments not too far from the tube ride; part fluid dynamics, and part magic. But how does nose riding actually work? What makes this bizarre suspension between sea and sky physically possible? The Physics of Noseriding explores the question through the eyes of Namaala, a young surfer whose people were flying on the water long before the world even knew what surfing was. Her curiosity invites us to examine the sensation of levitation that unfolds as wave, surfboard and surfer come together, a place where human and ocean intersect for the motion of surfing’s fluid dance.
FACING MONSTERS (SA Premiere)
Australia, 2023, 93min
Director: Bentley Dean
Scarborough Community Centre, Scarborough, 19:30 Tuesday 21 March
This documentary feature depicts the sheer brutal insanity of West Australian slab surfing that makes your skin crawl with fiery sea lice scuttling in abject terror from giant waves. We sink below the surface into the roiling depths of hellman surfer Kerby Brown’s psyche. Much more than a simple surfing story, this is a searing glimpse into that twilight zone between life and death. This dark, swirling place is the epiphany that near-death can bring to a man fixated on a single minded mission that can only end in the impact zone of foaming bedrock at a ferocious slab no one on the planet has surfed before, and perhaps will never surf again.
AFRICA (SA Premiere)
Morocco, 2023, 4 min
Director: Sam Christiansen
Scarborough Community Centre, Scarborough, 19:30 Tuesday 21 March
In Africa, we journey to the sights and sounds of Morocco with South African longboarder Sam Christiansen. Sam’s tip-toeing and gliding along long open stretches of wave leaves one mesmerised.
SATURDAY 25 MARCH – END OF FESTIVAL – VANS FILM NIGHT AT LABIA THEATRE
AMBLE (SA Premiere)
UK, 2023, 4min
Director: Seth Hughes
Labia Theatre, Cape Town, 18:00 Saturday 25 March
This is a poetic visual ode to ‘walking the nose’. For the uninitiated, that means pulling off fluid dance moves as you cross-step back and forth along the top of your longboard while ‘logging’ small waves. The result is a gorgeous art form that codifies grace and style. But knowing when to move forwards or back entails great skill. Apart from balance and poise, you need a carefully honed instinct for what part of your board is connecting with the wave. In that moment, you also need to read the energy of the wave, and how and where it is about to break. Either way, this sumptuous little film is a wonderful expression of this genre of water dancing.
HUMANITY STOKED (SA Premiere)
US, 2023, 94min
Director: Michael Cohen
The Labia Theatre, Cape Town, 18:00 Saturday 25 March
It’s surprising we haven’t seen a film like this before. Humanity Stoked is an experiment into how humanity can move forward, as espoused by the world’s most iconic skateboarders, activists, scientists, artists, musicians, and educators all unified by unique experiences and perspectives shaped by their love of skateboarding. The film depicts how we can peacefully, openly, and intelligently advance humanity into the future. Conversations range from human rights and LGBTQ rights to racial equality. The protagonists speak of how we teach children about fear, environmental protection, giving back, and the value of science, art and music in education and to society. There are frank discussions around drug addiction and recovery, and mental health. An inspiring look at how humans can be empathetic to the world around them.
BLINK
Global, 2023, 7.31min
Director: Shayn Sykes
The Labia Theatre, Cape Town, 18:00 Saturday 25 March
Blink profiles the talents of Shane Sykes in some of the most pristine and exquisite surfing locations in Indonesia, Mexico, California and South Africa. Between mind-blowing airs and the kind of power surfing that is rare these days, comes grainy black and white images of the moments in- between.
Big thank you to our partners, many who have been supporting the festival for years.
If you would like to get involved please contact our festival director shani@wavescape.co.za / 0835095106