Andy Irons: Kissed by God is a documentary film that focuses on the untold story of one of the world’s most prolific surfers. Andy won three World Titles throughout his career and is regarded as “The People’s Champ” around the world, for his blue collar rise to fame and his relatability. Despite all the success, Andy’s personal demons ultimately led to the heartbreaking tragedy that became part of his legacy. Filmmakers Steve and Todd Jones interlace breathtaking cinematography with archival footage and interviews with family, friends, and Andy’s competitors. Andy Irons: Kissed by God spotlights the effect of mental illness on one of the millions who struggle with the disease every day.
The film features in-depth interviews with Andy’s brother Bruce Irons, his wife Lyndie Irons, Joel Parkinson, Nathan Fletcher, Sunny Garcia and Kelly Slater. “The time to tell Andy’s story is now, not because we want to glorify his life or accomplishments but because Andy wanted to share the truth of his struggles to educate future generations,” said his brother, Bruce Irons. “We wanted to share the whole story – both the struggles and the triumphs – and give intimate insight as to who Andy was as a whole.“
The film, three years in the making, honors the legacy of Andy Irons and focuses on his struggles with bipolar disorder and opioid addiction. This is a film about a person who lived life to the fullest, at the top of his industry, but did so facing insurmountable internal challenges. Fellow surfing champion and friend Kelly Slater said, “Andy was an absolutely gifted individual. I am lucky to have known him and had the times we had together. He was the most intense competitor I’ve ever known and one of the most sensitive people.”
Directed by Steve and Todd Jones, the World Premiere will take place in Los Angeles on Wednesday, May 2nd. The Los Angeles premiere will be followed by special premiere screenings and events in Hawaii on May 6th and New York on May 10th.
It’s being shown in cinemas in the US on the 31st of May, details here, we’ll let you know when we hear about UK/European showings.
To deliver a British and Irish film means a lot of road and ferry time…
Oli Adams has been evolving as a surfer and a filmmaker. His latest visual feast, which has the honour of being a Vimeo Staff Pick, Trip the Light documents a British and Irish winter. We asked him what it takes to deliver a class film.
THE PREMISE
I wanted to make a high performance clip that showed the UK and Ireland’s waves and lifestyle in different way. There have been a lot crazy slabby/big wave clips and some moody destination pieces but this was all about surfing fun waves although I did want some bigger conditions in there but last winter there were really no high quality big swells, instead there were a few small windows that only local surfers would have scored while having their eyes on the lineups.
STEPPING UP PRODUCTION
I’m always thinking of ways to move forward with my career. Being from the UK means that you are very low down on people’s radars internationally unless you can make or put out content that is up there internationally in terms of surfing but also largely the level of production. I realised this and looked for a way to get my productions up to that level.
One was to essentially sell project ideas to production companies who then get the project funded through sponsorship. This was long winded option that can work but takes time to get off the ground. The other was to invest in high level equipment myself and make my own films which will in turn help me run my social media better too. Around the time an opportunity came about to buy a second hand RED Epic camera(5K 300 frames a second).
They are super expensive so after a lot of thinking I decided to set it up as hire business and the hire income would eventually pay off the camera while in the mean time I could use it to film my surf projects when it wasn’t on a job. It’s the only camera like this available to hire in Cornwall so it has done loads of mainstream productions for film and TV and has been round the world without me. I’ve also had to invest in computers and hard drives capable of dealing with extremely big files as each quick surf clip is around 3GB. In terms of editing it’s been a massive learning curve and I couldn’t have got through it without the help of pro guys like Timmy Boydell, Mikey Corker and Ollie Fawcett and also Google tutorials. I feel like I’ve been to film school. Also my wife is always a big help as a sounding board plus she always nails the title names.
Timmy Boydell one of the high end film crew.
COMING BACK FROM SURGERY
Since being ill I feel like I’ve been on a constant upward spiral in my surfing from learning to walk and get around again, to getting up on a surfboard for the first time and then as you start loosening up and adding strength you start being able to finally put your mental approach to surfing together with a physical platform of support that wasn’t there pre-op when I was extremely malnourished for most of my career.
I started production on Trip the Light less than a year after my surgery and I can see my surfing improving though the course of filming. It’s great to film often because you can really analyse what you are currently doing but you also have a great reference as to where you were at in that moment. I can really see this in each video I’ve released since I’ve been surfing again. I went to Canada three months post-op, Mentawais five months post-op and then now this one which started filming 11 months afterwards.
Cornish waft. Photo: Luke Gartside.
HOW THE PROJECT WORKED
Basically I started thinking I could work with one filmer on this but after a few months realised that charts in the UK and Ireland are so unpredictable and last minute that even asking every filmer in the UK the night before the trip might end in the waves not being documented. I ended up using six filmers who all nailed their parts apart from one who forgot his tripod after we got a wild ferry in January out to a remote Irish island haha!
Luckily a bird twitcher randomly lent him one. The stress of calling the trips on was intense as filmers day rate is £150 minimum, if you’re lucky, so with travel I was dropping heavy coin on one swell or even a session. I would be checking charts, wind, tides right until an hour before lift off and by that point I usually hadn’t managed to get a filmer.
On one trip this one filmer who lived up country was 50/50 and to make it in time for a ferry I had to set off with the equipment in the car for an hour just in case he could make it and then as I got near his turning he pulled out so I went anyway and scored better waves than were in the film and had no footage to show. So tricky!
There’s more to surf films than just surfing…
ROAD MILES
Probably 5000 miles at a guess were covered during filming. During the winter probably more because I didn’t film all my trips. When you’re on the way to epic surf I don’t care how long it takes. The trick is to travel with mates and then you can catch up on the way. That’s my version of going to the pub.
Shooting with a RED makes for epic footage.
OTHER SURFERS
The idea to put other surfers in just came in a really natural way and wasn’t pre-organised. The guys in there are all shortboard surfers that I really admire in different ways and they just happened to be out there for the session. My mate Felix came with me on the trip to Beefies though as I had been promising to take him for years. He wasn’t expecting to be in a film but ended up probably getting the best clip of the trip.
Oli deep in Kernow. Photo: Luke Gartside
NEXT
Is a jumble of ideas, drive and froth but most of all a continued life long love of surfing. I have a million ideas ranging from more high performance stuff to adventure stuff, business stuff. A few new exciting projects are up and running already (luckily I’m not producing them just surfing) and there are many more burning away in my head but the thing I learned most from this project is family is more important than anything!
You have to find a balance and they have to come first. Being a pro surfer it’s easy to think ‘I’ve got to do this right now because my career is short’ and if you are driven it’s easy to over commit so moving forward I’m going to take it one step at time and work within realistic deadlines.
It’s been horrible saying to my kids all summer, ‘Sorry, Daddy is busy with his film.’ Balance is the key to life and surfing good waves will follow.
The 6th annual London Surf / Film Festival x Reef served up six nights of World, European and UK movie premieres, live music, art, talks and the very best in surf culture in four epic venues across the capital.
“Waveriding is such an ephemeral thing. Each moment and each wave is unique, they can’t be re-ridden. It’s what sets surfing apart and this is exactly the spirit of we wanted to bring out in this year’s festival,” says LS/FF Director Demi Taylor
“Our closing gala with the live A/V performance of Chasing Zero from composer CJ Mirra and award winning filmmaker Chris McClean, followed by the 35mm premiere of Forbidden Trim and live set from the Forbidden Trim Band blew everyone away. It really encapsulated the surfing spirit and underscored just how special the communal act of a big screen surf movie experience is.”
“Every evening we curated was designed to capture that essence too – from hearing filmmakers and surfers talking about their projects and experiences, including the likes of Argentinian explorers Joaquin and Julian Azulay, British surfers Mike Lay and Elsie Pinniger, Carve Editor Roger Sharp, Irish charger Peter Conroy and filmmaker Jack Murgatroyd, to jokes shared amongst friends, sausages sizzled, art enjoyed, beers drunk and hoots and stoke emitting from the amped audience.”
Thanks to everyone who supported the event, came, watched, hooted, brought the stoke and helped to make it such a great year at the LS/FF. The judges votes are in and here are the results of the LS/FF 2016 Awards…
Photos: Peter Chamberlain / London Surf / Film Festival
· LS/FF 2016 Best Film presented by Reef:Let’s Be Frank by Peter Hamblin
· LS/FF 2016 Best Documentary presented by Sharp’s Brewery:Dirty Old Wedge by Tim Burnham
· LS/FF 2016 Best Cinematography presented by Allpress:View From a Blue Moon by Blake Kueny
· LS/FF 2016 Viewers Choice presented by Xcel Wetsuits:Chasing Zero by Chris McClean and CJ Mirra
· LS/FF 2016 Shortie of the Year presented by Reef:Call Me Peg Legby Josh Hine
Filmmaker George Trimm has been on our radar since he dropped his first film Bootleg – a colab with Joel Tudor mixing stylish surfing with rad tunes. Since then, this cutting edge independent director has been working feverishly on a new project – Forbidden Trim. Shot entirely on celluloid, George has crafted what is arguably the most hotly anticipated surf movie of the year that combines the best of grindhouse, B-Movie traditions with a surfing twist. What’s more, he’s produced a 35mm print for the big screen that he’s bringing to London for its first outing accompanied by a live performance from the Forbidden Trim Band.
Can you tell us about ‘Forbidden Trim’ – what’s the concept and how did you pull the whole thing together?
I wanted to make something that resembles a short novel, a H.P. Lovecraft or a Louis L’Amore, but set in the deep jungle. I like the idea of going on an adventure with the main character, into the darkness to find out what’s going on where no one’s allowed to go. With Forbidden Trim I am mixing a lot of different film genres. It’s a Grindhouse, Surfing, Sci-Fi, Horror, Comedy, War film. I’ve been editing it ever since I put out Bootleg, which is a bit over three years. We started filming five years ago – and I’m stoked to be sharing the 35mm print with the UK audience.
It sounds like more than your average surf movie!
It’s definitely a movie you can watch four times and still find something new on the fifth visit. My small team and I did everything on this movie. All the filming, score, miniature models, props, art direction, editing, special effects, etc. It’s my most involved picture for sure.
As an independent filmmaker how hard is it to get a project like this financed?
It’s hard. I have been taking little bits of each pay check I receive from being a professional editor/videographer, and putting it into this movie. It’s shot on super8mm and 16mm film, which is not cheap.
How did you get into filmmaking?
My parents bought a Hi-8 camera when I was about 10. I was getting into surfing then so I would film pictures of surfboards and little objects around my house. I started interning at O’Neill wetsuits when I was 16 as a graphic artist. I went to college for Graphic Design. I didn’t do much filmmaking until 2008 when I started assisting a motion graphics editor. I loved how graphics were used in films, and was super inspired by people like Saul Bass. I bought a super 8 camera in 2009 and went to Australia and shot 18 rolls of super 8 and ever since I’ve been hooked on Cinematography, Editing, and tying those crafts together with custom musical scores.
What is it about filmmaking that drives you?
In my opinion it is the most exciting art we have today, being able to create with image, concept, dialogue, time, layout, and audio. Not only with the score but the creation of sound effects. Take those elements and throw in some surfing, I think that’s what I am most interested in as a filmmaker today. For the last six years I’ve been working as a freelance filmmaker full time, doing commercial work to help with the bills. This is not a hobby, I see filmmaking as a lifelong career, and hope to make many more movies in the future.
London Surf / Film Festival X Reef concludes this weekend 30 September – 1 October brings to the UK the best surf films from around the globe. Accompanied by talks with waveriding’s most inspiring heroes and icons, a live audio visual performance, a very special 35mm screening, a gallery show, music, art and more this saline hit of inspiration is an essential cultural happening. For full schedule details and info on a couple of very special LS/FF pop-up screenings head to: www.londonsurffilmfestival.com
Whilst we’re all jazzed on actual surf films Hollywood and surfing have never been easy bedfellows. To represent our zealously guarded subculture to the masses has rarely worked out all that well. Surfing, like the extreme sports subcultures it inspired, don’t favour being paraded for the mainstream. Sure the recent big wave documentaries have kind of worked but the great Hollywood surf feature film remains to be made.
Actual surf films, like the international assortment being shown at the London Surf / Film Festival (see you there tonight!) are of course well catered for … the mainstream is slim pickings.
Join us on a romp through the celluloid highs and lows of Tinsel Town’s dalliances with the glide. This list is by no means exhaustive, just the films that have had an impact.
GIDGET (1959)
Few of you reading will be old enough to remember the first foray of Hollywood into the fledgling Californian surf culture.
Inspired by a real girl, Kathy Kohler, Gidget was based on the half million selling book written by her father Frederick. He wrote the book after listening to her tales of the Malibu scene. Cheesy as it was the tale of a cute girl discovering boys and surfing was a nationwide hit. It’s widely regarded as the film that alerted America to the fact there was more to the beach than just sun-baking and swimming; ushering in the classic ‘surfing sixties’ era when the Beach Boys and Californian lifestyle were the envy of the world. Legends like Mickey Dora, Mike Doyle and Micky Munoz featured as stunt doubles. Ironically the ‘Malibu’ tale was filmed up the coast as Malibu was already too busy. Perversely Surfer magazine debuted the following year.
Factoid: Gidget is a contraction of girl-midget as she stood a towering five foot tall.
ENDLESS SUMMER (1964, theatrical release 1966)
Bruce Brown’s iconic all-time classic is that rare beast: a pure surf movie that became a mainstream success. Even though stripped back it’s a simple travelogue following Robert August and Mike Hynson searching the world for the perfect wave it captured the essence of surfing like no film before or since. After being toured around the beach towns, as was the way in those days, it was test screened in Kansas in winter. It went down so well it was blown up to 35mm for the proper cinema crowd and put on general release. The one man crew film cost $50,000 to make and went on to make $30 million. Not a bad for a filmmaker in his late twenties. Even today the imagery, narration, music and poster design are timeless. It’s one of the few essential movies every surfer should watch.
BIG WEDNESDAY (1978)
Big Wednesday is beloved by many. Directed and co-written by John Milius it’s coming of age theme hits home with all surfers. Weirdly it was a flop at the cinema and became a cult success once home video took off. It’s one of those films that’s gifted us with many much repeated quotes. In the limited pantheon of Hollywood surf films that aren’t stinkers this is probably the most rounded feature film. Surfing is the one thing that can glue friendship together no matter what life throws our way.
Factoid: Milius and friends George Lucas and Steven Spielberg exchanged a percentage point of the income from their upcoming movies 1977 Star Wars and Close Encounters of the Third Kind. They were both convinced it was going to be a huge hit. So while the surf movie tanked that deal must’ve been quite a zinger as those other directors did ‘okay’.
APOCALYPSE NOW (1979)
Surfing is an element, not the focus, of Francis Ford Coppola’s legendary film. But it is possibly the strangest bit of surfing committed to celluloid. The classic ‘I love the smell of napalm in the morning’ scene is delivered by Colonel ‘Charlie don’t surf’ Kilgore in the midst of a battle to secure a Vietnamese beach village so they can surf the river mouth peaks. People surf as shells explode around them. All kinds of bonkers. Written by Big Wednesday man John Milius it was nearly directed by George Lucas but he got Star Wars green-lit and went on to do that instead. The film is also credited with introducing surfing to the Philippines where the ‘Nam scenes were filmed.
NORTH SHORE (1987)
Possibly the best cheesy surf movie ever. Rick Kane’s odyssey from Arizona wave pool hero to the learning the ropes on the fabled North Shore is essential viewing for all surfers. Mainly so you can know when other surfers are dropping one of the many quotable bits of dialogue. That and it’s a handy guide to learning Hawaiian pidgin. It features cameos from many legends like Occy, Pagey, Laird and Lopez. A perfect time capsule of eighties surfing and something you gots to see.
Also increasingly relevant now that wave pools are back in vogue.
SURF NAZIS MUST DIE (1987)
The best slash worst surf B-movie ever made. Surf Nazis was made seemingly on a budget of about a tenner. The surf ‘gangs’ tend to have a maximum of four people in them and it’s utterly hilarious in it’s own mad post apocalyptic way. The eighties was the era of home video becoming a big thing so polished turds like this could get released straight to video without having to be good enough to be in cinemas. A definite winner of the so bad it’s good category.
POINT BREAK (1991)
Kathryn Bigelow is more famous for the epic Iraq movie The Hurt Locker but she cut her action teeth on this crime surf caper that has a place in our hearts no matter how wrong it might be considered by some. The late Patrick Swayze is perfect as the groovy villain Bodhi and Keanu is as wooden as ever but it works. It’s a pop corn film about bank robbers that surf a bit. You have to have seen it, just so you can have an opinion. It does feature the immortal line from Utah, ‘Wars of religion always make me laugh because basically you’re fighting over who has the best imaginary friend.’ Keanu actually learned to surf for the movie and still does. Swayze also did his own skydiving stunts. We obvs won’t mention the insult to the Swayze’s memory that was Point Break 2.
ENDLESS SUMMER 2 (1994)
The reboot of Endless Summer followed Robert ‘Wingnut’ Weaver and Pat O’Connell on a modern version of the original. Whilst appreciated by surfers it didn’t hit the box office like the original. Bruce Brown’s son Dana went on to make Step Into Liquid which is kinda Endless Summer 3.
BLUE JUICE (1995)
The lone Cornish entry in the mainstream movie field has, in retrospect, a pretty heavyweight cast. Catherine Zeta Jones and Ewan McGregor went on to be global megastars. It’s actually a good film, funny dialogue and a story that all surfing couples can relate to. The pressures of growing up and being a productive member of society versus the head in the clouds surf obsession. Many local Cornish faces are in there as extras.
IN GODS HANDS (1998)
You know… There’s a wave…
Shane Dorian might be an all time surfing MVP and hero to many but in some surfer’s closets is an embarrassing Hollywood outing. This was Dozzas. The surfing at least doesn’t involve stunt doubles and is well shot. It’s only the dialogue that’s ugly. Directed by an erotica specialist, Zalman King, more famous for 9 & A Half Weeks, it was written by surf journo Matt George who also starred. It tanked hard at the box office. Reviews featured words like: turgid, pretentious, abysmal, tepid, bogus and vapid. Suffice to say it never made the 10 mill back it cost to make. It did at least feature the likes of Shaun Tomson, Brian Keaulana, Darrick Doerner, Brock Little and Mike Stewart.
Factoid: The production company was owned by Charlie Sheen and that Bret bloke off of Poison. So they could afford to take the hit.
BLUE CRUSH (2002)
Seeing as the first surf movie was about a girl surfer it’s pretty poor it took over forty years for there to be another one. Whilst the story is forgettable the surfing is well shot and it inspired a generation of women to get in the water. We were there on the North Shore they were shooting it and somehow the shot Sonny Miller took of Sharpy pretending to shoot photos never made the final cut… The swines.
RIDING GIANTS (2004)
A rarity as a documentary that made it to big screen. If there’s one thing that really works on the big screen it’s big wave surfing and Stacy Peralta didn’t disappoint. The film charts the evolution of surfing from its humble origins to the state of the art of big wave surfing in the mid-noughties. It was the first documentary film to open the Sundance Film Festival, introduced by Robert Redford himself, which after Peralta’s Dogtown and Z-Boys is no great surprise.
SURF’S UP (2007)
Yes. It’s an animation. But some of the best work in Hollywood is being done by the animation studios and this penguin based surf odyssey had the pull to get Kelly Slater and Rob Machado involved as cameo commentators. It’s similar tale to North Shore as the young outsider learns from a wise old surfer to beat the establishment while learning lessons on love and life along the way. It’s charming and the perfect first kids surf flick with enough surf smarts to keep adults happy.
CHASING MAVERICKS (2012)
The tragic story of Maverick’s legend Jay Moriarty should’ve been left well alone.
Factoid: According to imdb.com six Red Epic cameras were lost during filming. Not cheap that.
So there you go. Over fifty years of surfing in the cinema and we’re still waiting on one that we can really be truly proud of.
