Exclusive: Andrew Herwitz has picked up four world premieres for his Sundance slate and added a fifth title from Main Street neighbour Slamdance.
The line-up includes Will Allen’s Us Documentary Competition entry Holy Hell (pictured), about a California cult that features footage shot by the director over the course of years while serving as the group’s videographer. Holy Hell premieres on January 25.
How To Tell You’re A Douchebag comes from first-time filmmaker Tahir Jetter about a relationship blogger in Brooklyn who meets his match. The Next entry’s world premiere is set for January 25.
Us Dramatic Competition entry Spa Night by Andrew Ahn premieres on January 24 and centres on a Koreatown family in Los Angeles.
Heidi Brandenburg and Matthew Orzel’s When Two Worlds Collide premieres in World Cinema Documentary Competition on January 22.
The story centres on Peruvian president Alan Garcia’s attempts to extract oil and minerals from untouched Amazonian land and his...
The line-up includes Will Allen’s Us Documentary Competition entry Holy Hell (pictured), about a California cult that features footage shot by the director over the course of years while serving as the group’s videographer. Holy Hell premieres on January 25.
How To Tell You’re A Douchebag comes from first-time filmmaker Tahir Jetter about a relationship blogger in Brooklyn who meets his match. The Next entry’s world premiere is set for January 25.
Us Dramatic Competition entry Spa Night by Andrew Ahn premieres on January 24 and centres on a Koreatown family in Los Angeles.
Heidi Brandenburg and Matthew Orzel’s When Two Worlds Collide premieres in World Cinema Documentary Competition on January 22.
The story centres on Peruvian president Alan Garcia’s attempts to extract oil and minerals from untouched Amazonian land and his...
- 1/15/2016
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
Fresh off its Slamdance 2012 premiere, the Vans Warped Tour Docu No Room For Rockstars is hitting theaters across the country for a one-night exclusive engagement (details). We've got a clip for you ahead of tonight's big event. The clip features festival creator Kevin Lyman chatting about how the legendary tour helped launch the careers of music heavyweights including: Sublime, NoDoubt, Blink 182, Fall Out Boy and more. The film is a pretty interesting and sometimes heart heavy look behind the scenes of one America's most iconic and long-running touring rock shows. Filmmaker Parris Patton (along with veteran producers Stacy Peralta and Agi Orsi) brings his cameras into the close confines of the tour buses of a few of the young rock bands out...
- 3/1/2012
- Screen Anarchy
Screened
Sundance Film Festival
PARK CITY -- For its first-ever opening night in Park City, the Sundance Film Festival chose to premiere "Riding Giants", the first documentary to open the festival. It was an understandable though curious choice.
Understandable because Sundance is not only proud of the large role it has played in showcasing documentaries from its very beginnings, but the festival also loves to celebrate its alumni. "Riding Giants" director Stacy Peralta won the audience and director awards at the 2001 Sundance for his docu "Dogtown and Z-Boys". Curious because this film about surfing fails to thoroughly investigate the subculture and all too easily settles for an admiring promotional film, albeit one with lively moments, a good sense of humor and colorful real-life figures who will captivate even nonsurfers.
At the moment, however, the film is unlikely to play to many nonsurfers. "Riding Giants" is at least 15 minutes too long. Repetitive shots of giant waves and wipeouts diminish rather than enhance one's appreciation of the courage of today's surfers. "Riding Giants" seems intent on selling the sport rather than examining why people are willing to risk their necks to challenge nature at her most volatile.
While the film begins with a brief historical overview of the sport, the focus swiftly shifts to one subject: the lure of riding "big waves," swells that can reach up to 70 feet. While this is a bit like making a documentary on boxing that focuses only on heavyweights while ignoring all other weight divisions, there is no doubt this is the most exciting and dangerous aspect of the sport.
In an often tongue-in-cheek manner, Peralta and co-writer Sam George trace the evolution of big-wave riding from the conquest of Hawaii's Waimea Bay in the 1950s, following the introduction of lighter boards made of balsa and fiber glass, to today's tow-in surfing that allows surfers to ride giants.
Three figures emerge: Greg Noll, who, with his muscular build and striped trunks, led the charge in the '50s and '60s
Jeff Clark, who discovered but kept secret for a while the treacherous Mavericks surfing area in Northern California
and Laird Hamilton, today's blond god of contemporary Hawaiian surfing.
The movie has fun with the Gidget movies that, while popularizing the sport around the world, were treated with contempt by real surfers. It also has solemn moments, showing the drowning death of top Hawaiian surfer Mark Foo at Mavericks in 1994.
Peralta, who made his mark with skateboarding movies, is new to surfing films. He is either unaware of or unwilling to utilize the advanced techniques and surf-cam operators employed by filmmakers like Dana Brown, whose "Step Into Liquid", released last year, let viewers get up close and personal with big-wave riders while inside those watery tubes.
As waves pound endlessly at the audience and big questions about the surfing lifestyle and lure of risk-taking never get asked, the movie shamelessly exposes its own promotional side. For a film exec produced by Laird Hamilton to call Laird Hamilton the best big-wave surfer ever is not only disingenuous but ignores the controversy of that statement in the surfing world. Hamilton may well be Top Dog, but he tends to shun championship competitions, where it might be put to a test.
The use of archival footage, much of which is probably home movies, is quite good, and Peralta's interviews often produce sharp, revealing comments. But he and his cohorts let salesmanship triumph over filmmaking.
RIDING GIANTS
Forever Films and Studio Canal
in association with Quicksilver
Credits:
Director: Stacy Peralta
Screenwriters: Stacy Peralta, Sam George
Producer: Agi Orsi, Stacy Peralta, Jane Kachmer
Executive producers: Nathalie Delest, Franck Marty, Laird Hamilton
Director of photography: Peter Pilafian
Music: Matter
Editor/co-producer: Paul Crowder
Running time -- 104 minutes
No MPAA rating...
Sundance Film Festival
PARK CITY -- For its first-ever opening night in Park City, the Sundance Film Festival chose to premiere "Riding Giants", the first documentary to open the festival. It was an understandable though curious choice.
Understandable because Sundance is not only proud of the large role it has played in showcasing documentaries from its very beginnings, but the festival also loves to celebrate its alumni. "Riding Giants" director Stacy Peralta won the audience and director awards at the 2001 Sundance for his docu "Dogtown and Z-Boys". Curious because this film about surfing fails to thoroughly investigate the subculture and all too easily settles for an admiring promotional film, albeit one with lively moments, a good sense of humor and colorful real-life figures who will captivate even nonsurfers.
At the moment, however, the film is unlikely to play to many nonsurfers. "Riding Giants" is at least 15 minutes too long. Repetitive shots of giant waves and wipeouts diminish rather than enhance one's appreciation of the courage of today's surfers. "Riding Giants" seems intent on selling the sport rather than examining why people are willing to risk their necks to challenge nature at her most volatile.
While the film begins with a brief historical overview of the sport, the focus swiftly shifts to one subject: the lure of riding "big waves," swells that can reach up to 70 feet. While this is a bit like making a documentary on boxing that focuses only on heavyweights while ignoring all other weight divisions, there is no doubt this is the most exciting and dangerous aspect of the sport.
In an often tongue-in-cheek manner, Peralta and co-writer Sam George trace the evolution of big-wave riding from the conquest of Hawaii's Waimea Bay in the 1950s, following the introduction of lighter boards made of balsa and fiber glass, to today's tow-in surfing that allows surfers to ride giants.
Three figures emerge: Greg Noll, who, with his muscular build and striped trunks, led the charge in the '50s and '60s
Jeff Clark, who discovered but kept secret for a while the treacherous Mavericks surfing area in Northern California
and Laird Hamilton, today's blond god of contemporary Hawaiian surfing.
The movie has fun with the Gidget movies that, while popularizing the sport around the world, were treated with contempt by real surfers. It also has solemn moments, showing the drowning death of top Hawaiian surfer Mark Foo at Mavericks in 1994.
Peralta, who made his mark with skateboarding movies, is new to surfing films. He is either unaware of or unwilling to utilize the advanced techniques and surf-cam operators employed by filmmakers like Dana Brown, whose "Step Into Liquid", released last year, let viewers get up close and personal with big-wave riders while inside those watery tubes.
As waves pound endlessly at the audience and big questions about the surfing lifestyle and lure of risk-taking never get asked, the movie shamelessly exposes its own promotional side. For a film exec produced by Laird Hamilton to call Laird Hamilton the best big-wave surfer ever is not only disingenuous but ignores the controversy of that statement in the surfing world. Hamilton may well be Top Dog, but he tends to shun championship competitions, where it might be put to a test.
The use of archival footage, much of which is probably home movies, is quite good, and Peralta's interviews often produce sharp, revealing comments. But he and his cohorts let salesmanship triumph over filmmaking.
RIDING GIANTS
Forever Films and Studio Canal
in association with Quicksilver
Credits:
Director: Stacy Peralta
Screenwriters: Stacy Peralta, Sam George
Producer: Agi Orsi, Stacy Peralta, Jane Kachmer
Executive producers: Nathalie Delest, Franck Marty, Laird Hamilton
Director of photography: Peter Pilafian
Music: Matter
Editor/co-producer: Paul Crowder
Running time -- 104 minutes
No MPAA rating...
Screened
Sundance Film Festival
PARK CITY -- For its first-ever opening night in Park City, the Sundance Film Festival chose to premiere "Riding Giants", the first documentary to open the festival. It was an understandable though curious choice.
Understandable because Sundance is not only proud of the large role it has played in showcasing documentaries from its very beginnings, but the festival also loves to celebrate its alumni. "Riding Giants" director Stacy Peralta won the audience and director awards at the 2001 Sundance for his docu "Dogtown and Z-Boys". Curious because this film about surfing fails to thoroughly investigate the subculture and all too easily settles for an admiring promotional film, albeit one with lively moments, a good sense of humor and colorful real-life figures who will captivate even nonsurfers.
At the moment, however, the film is unlikely to play to many nonsurfers. "Riding Giants" is at least 15 minutes too long. Repetitive shots of giant waves and wipeouts diminish rather than enhance one's appreciation of the courage of today's surfers. "Riding Giants" seems intent on selling the sport rather than examining why people are willing to risk their necks to challenge nature at her most volatile.
While the film begins with a brief historical overview of the sport, the focus swiftly shifts to one subject: the lure of riding "big waves," swells that can reach up to 70 feet. While this is a bit like making a documentary on boxing that focuses only on heavyweights while ignoring all other weight divisions, there is no doubt this is the most exciting and dangerous aspect of the sport.
In an often tongue-in-cheek manner, Peralta and co-writer Sam George trace the evolution of big-wave riding from the conquest of Hawaii's Waimea Bay in the 1950s, following the introduction of lighter boards made of balsa and fiber glass, to today's tow-in surfing that allows surfers to ride giants.
Three figures emerge: Greg Noll, who, with his muscular build and striped trunks, led the charge in the '50s and '60s
Jeff Clark, who discovered but kept secret for a while the treacherous Mavericks surfing area in Northern California
and Laird Hamilton, today's blond god of contemporary Hawaiian surfing.
The movie has fun with the Gidget movies that, while popularizing the sport around the world, were treated with contempt by real surfers. It also has solemn moments, showing the drowning death of top Hawaiian surfer Mark Foo at Mavericks in 1994.
Peralta, who made his mark with skateboarding movies, is new to surfing films. He is either unaware of or unwilling to utilize the advanced techniques and surf-cam operators employed by filmmakers like Dana Brown, whose "Step Into Liquid", released last year, let viewers get up close and personal with big-wave riders while inside those watery tubes.
As waves pound endlessly at the audience and big questions about the surfing lifestyle and lure of risk-taking never get asked, the movie shamelessly exposes its own promotional side. For a film exec produced by Laird Hamilton to call Laird Hamilton the best big-wave surfer ever is not only disingenuous but ignores the controversy of that statement in the surfing world. Hamilton may well be Top Dog, but he tends to shun championship competitions, where it might be put to a test.
The use of archival footage, much of which is probably home movies, is quite good, and Peralta's interviews often produce sharp, revealing comments. But he and his cohorts let salesmanship triumph over filmmaking.
RIDING GIANTS
Forever Films and Studio Canal
in association with Quicksilver
Credits:
Director: Stacy Peralta
Screenwriters: Stacy Peralta, Sam George
Producer: Agi Orsi, Stacy Peralta, Jane Kachmer
Executive producers: Nathalie Delest, Franck Marty, Laird Hamilton
Director of photography: Peter Pilafian
Music: Matter
Editor/co-producer: Paul Crowder
Running time -- 104 minutes
No MPAA rating...
Sundance Film Festival
PARK CITY -- For its first-ever opening night in Park City, the Sundance Film Festival chose to premiere "Riding Giants", the first documentary to open the festival. It was an understandable though curious choice.
Understandable because Sundance is not only proud of the large role it has played in showcasing documentaries from its very beginnings, but the festival also loves to celebrate its alumni. "Riding Giants" director Stacy Peralta won the audience and director awards at the 2001 Sundance for his docu "Dogtown and Z-Boys". Curious because this film about surfing fails to thoroughly investigate the subculture and all too easily settles for an admiring promotional film, albeit one with lively moments, a good sense of humor and colorful real-life figures who will captivate even nonsurfers.
At the moment, however, the film is unlikely to play to many nonsurfers. "Riding Giants" is at least 15 minutes too long. Repetitive shots of giant waves and wipeouts diminish rather than enhance one's appreciation of the courage of today's surfers. "Riding Giants" seems intent on selling the sport rather than examining why people are willing to risk their necks to challenge nature at her most volatile.
While the film begins with a brief historical overview of the sport, the focus swiftly shifts to one subject: the lure of riding "big waves," swells that can reach up to 70 feet. While this is a bit like making a documentary on boxing that focuses only on heavyweights while ignoring all other weight divisions, there is no doubt this is the most exciting and dangerous aspect of the sport.
In an often tongue-in-cheek manner, Peralta and co-writer Sam George trace the evolution of big-wave riding from the conquest of Hawaii's Waimea Bay in the 1950s, following the introduction of lighter boards made of balsa and fiber glass, to today's tow-in surfing that allows surfers to ride giants.
Three figures emerge: Greg Noll, who, with his muscular build and striped trunks, led the charge in the '50s and '60s
Jeff Clark, who discovered but kept secret for a while the treacherous Mavericks surfing area in Northern California
and Laird Hamilton, today's blond god of contemporary Hawaiian surfing.
The movie has fun with the Gidget movies that, while popularizing the sport around the world, were treated with contempt by real surfers. It also has solemn moments, showing the drowning death of top Hawaiian surfer Mark Foo at Mavericks in 1994.
Peralta, who made his mark with skateboarding movies, is new to surfing films. He is either unaware of or unwilling to utilize the advanced techniques and surf-cam operators employed by filmmakers like Dana Brown, whose "Step Into Liquid", released last year, let viewers get up close and personal with big-wave riders while inside those watery tubes.
As waves pound endlessly at the audience and big questions about the surfing lifestyle and lure of risk-taking never get asked, the movie shamelessly exposes its own promotional side. For a film exec produced by Laird Hamilton to call Laird Hamilton the best big-wave surfer ever is not only disingenuous but ignores the controversy of that statement in the surfing world. Hamilton may well be Top Dog, but he tends to shun championship competitions, where it might be put to a test.
The use of archival footage, much of which is probably home movies, is quite good, and Peralta's interviews often produce sharp, revealing comments. But he and his cohorts let salesmanship triumph over filmmaking.
RIDING GIANTS
Forever Films and Studio Canal
in association with Quicksilver
Credits:
Director: Stacy Peralta
Screenwriters: Stacy Peralta, Sam George
Producer: Agi Orsi, Stacy Peralta, Jane Kachmer
Executive producers: Nathalie Delest, Franck Marty, Laird Hamilton
Director of photography: Peter Pilafian
Music: Matter
Editor/co-producer: Paul Crowder
Running time -- 104 minutes
No MPAA rating...
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