Shedule:

Thursday July 6, 2023

6:00pm: Opening Reception + Film: Searching for Tom Curren

We kick off the return of the festival with a reception and Hawai‘i premiere of the remastered classic Searching for Tom Curren. The reception in Luce Pavilion starts at 6pm and includes live music by Temple Waves, a buffet dinner by the HoMA Café, and a cash bar.

Searching for Tom Curren screens at 7:30pm and will be followed by a post-screening panel with Derek Hoffmann and Tom Curren.

Doors open for film-only ticket holders at 7:15pm.

Click Here To Get Tickets

7:30pm: Searching for Tom Curren

The Honolulu Surf Film Festival is honored to present the Hawai‘i premiere of the 25th Anniversary digitally remastered classic surf film Searching for Tom Curren, in loving memory of Sonny Miller. Rip Curl first presented the late, great Sonny Miller's film in late 1996, and in 1997 it won the Surfer Poll Awards Best Movie.

In the early 1990s, three-time World Champion Tom Curren was in his competitive prime but decided to leave the tour to join the Rip Curl Search program with filmmaker Sonny Miller at the helm. The result is the now iconic Searching for Tom Curren.

The film takes us along with Tom as he discovers new waves around the world, tests the limits of board design and offers insight into his refreshing and thoughtful perspective on life and surfing. Tom has influenced a generation of surfers with his humble and kind character and his pure, clean and radical approach to riding waves. Searching for Tom Curren is a must-see film for every surfer.

Click Here To Get Tickets

Friday July 7, 2023

2:00pm: Yin and Yang of Gerry Lopez

Gerry Lopez, Mr. Pipeline, is one of surfing’s most enigmatic heroes—a Zen Buddhist on land who built his early career on aggressive surfing. Patagonia Film’s The Yin & Yang of Gerry Lopez—directed by award-winning filmmaker Stacy Peralta—follows one of the most influential surfers and surfboard shapers of all time as he brings surfing to new frontiers while pursuing stillness of body and mind.

Come ride the lightning—on the big screen.

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7:00pm: HSFF 2023 Shorts Program

See a selection of shorts from around the world that explores all the different aspects of surfing.

Jocko
Directed by Matt Lutrell. 2023. Hawai‘i. 4 min.
Waves roll by. Jocko Sutherland takes to the ocean with Low Light. Special thanks to Jock Sutherland, Gavin Sutherland, Dave Homcy, and Gavin Murai.

Summer of '69
Directed by Randy Rarick. 2019. Hawai‘i. 13 min.
Randy Rarick, Willie Asprey, and Leah Dawson talk about and ride some classic boards of 1969 at Sunset Beach.

Stoker Machine
Directed by Darieus Legg. 2023. USA. 12 min.
In this animated short, Chad Campbell, an expert surfer, discovers a mysterious surfboard on Hawai‘i Island. The retro board provides only a phone number and an email address as clues to its origin, leading Chad to accidentally uncover a California Central Coast surf legend. The man they call "Stoker."

Merry Kaliyuga
Directed by Horace Martins. 2023. Morocco. 11 min.
A trip led by nature through the old and the new world.

The Physics of Noseriding
Directed by Lauren Hill. 2022. Australia. 10 min.
The noseride is one of surfing’s peak moments: part fluid dynamics, part magic. But how does noseriding actually work? What makes this suspension between sea and sky even possible? The Physics of Noseriding explores the question through the eyes of Namaala, a young surfer whose people were flying on the water 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 for surfing’s fluid dance.

Yama
Directed by Maddie Meddings and Lucy Small. 2023. Australia/Ghana. 25 min.
Yama follows Australian surfer and activist Lucy Small as she travels to Ghana to meet a group of pioneering female surfers and skaters.

Click Here To Get Tickets

Sunday July 9, 2023

2:00pm: Ora

Éric Dargent, Jérôme Bonelli and Benoît Moreau: three lives, each with their own handicap, and one common passion—surfing. Ora takes us through the history of these three people, discovering how they overcame obstacles through their love of the ocean. Their drive to continue moving forward inspires the three of them to travel to Tahiti to share their experiences and their knowledge of prosthesis to raise awareness to make it accessible to others.

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Thursday July 13, 2023

2:00pm: Surf Nation

Surf Nation is a feature-length observational documentary that tells a story beginning in Hainan, China’s southernmost province, where hundreds of athletes as young as nine years old train as part of the Chinese National Surf team. These young recruits from around the country have left their families and are paid to become surfers with Olympic aspirations. Shot in a tropical paradise with miles of empty beaches, the film captures aspiring athletes and their international coaches who live in an old hotel that has become the hub of surfing in China.

Over two years, we follow two of China’s top surfers, Alex, 17, who dreams of competing at the highest levels of pro surfing but has contempt for training, and Lolo, 22, who rejects a traditional life for a Chinese woman and surfs despite her parents’ disapproval. We follow them as they train with the team, compete and discover what they want their lives to be.

Click Here To Get Tickets

Friday July 14, 2023

2:00pm: Savage Waters

A 19th-century treasure hunter’s journal inspires a captivating journey to seek out and surf a mythical, never-ridden wave in some of the most remote and dangerous waters of the Atlantic Ocean.

For renowned skipper Matt Knight, sailing to unpredictable and uncharted regions is impossible to resist. As a lifelong thrill seeker, he is constantly testing the limits of what’s possible, something world-class big wave surfer Andrew Cotton has also built his career on.

With family and friends, they board the beautiful catamaran Hecate and follow clues to this “perfect wave,” but not everything goes to plan, with serious injury and life-threatening challenges testing the crew’s resilience and attitudes towards risk.

Savage Waters, narrated by the legendary Charles Dance, boasts jaw-dropping cinematography, and follows remarkable protagonists, for whom living life to the full often means putting themselves in harm’s way.

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Saturday July 15, 2023

2:00pm: Surf Like a Girl 2023

A collection focused on the experiences of our women in the water.

Synchronism
Directed by Scott Wynn & Elley Norman. 2023. USA. 4 min.
Synchronism juxtaposes surfer Josie Prendergast and synchronized swimmers in the ocean, both performing in unison—a first ever of its kind.

Below Surface
Directed by Chloe Keeley. 2022. Australia. 14 min.
Below Surface follows longboard surfer Lucy Small as she grasps the baton from the renegades who fought for equal opportunity in the world of surfing decades before her.

Malia
Directed by Morgan Maassen. 2022. USA. 16 min.
A trip around the world with Kaua?i’s Malia Manuel.

Night Crawler: Chelsea Woody
Directed by Chelsea Woody. 2021. USA. 5 min.
Night Crawler explores and hopefully restores the beauty and quiet of surfing at dusk into darkness. As the moon illuminates the shadows of the unseen, we can momentarily escape from the current chaos in the world. But who is allowed to find solace in outdoor spaces at night?

Beyond Sunset
Directed by Keith Malloy. 2023. Hawai‘i. 25 min.
It’s easy to think that she just gets it from her father. After all, Roger Erickson is a legend. But when Emi is out there charging, she deserves for you to know that no one’s on that board but her.

Click Here To Get Tickets

7:00pm: Island X + Vona

See two films that explore the far reaches of surfing globally.

Vona
Directed by Clint Davis. 2022. Turkey. English and Turkish with English subtitles. 17 min.
Vona follows Kepa Acero who finds himself on Turkey’s Black Sea coast in an area called Persembe, on the Vona Peninsula. In search of waves and adventure, he meets up with Deniz Toprak, a local who’s moved back home to rediscover his region and waves. Along the way they meet people who will guide them while they traverse the beautiful landscape, diving deep into the Turkish hospitality, the people's way of life, and the turbulent romance of surf exploration.

Island X
Directed by Ben Weiland. 2022. USA. 49 min.
Island X is a film about a journey to the edge of the surf map and overcoming life’s toughest setbacks. After losing his entire life’s work in a fire, internationally renowned surf photographer Mark McInnis assembles a team of surfers (Pete Devries, Noah Wegrich and Josh Mulcoy) and sets out on a grueling mission to track down undiscovered waves on the most unlikely of islands in the violent Bering Sea. His goal is to regain the inspiration that originally started him on the path of surf photography. After reaching the island, the crew meets up with a local native Alaskan—Ricardo Merculief—who has been surfing perfect, empty waves for more than 10 years by himself on his family’s ancestral land. With Ricardo’s guidance, the surfers ride world-class waves that challenge their understanding of what is possible in one of the harshest environments on the planet, while Mark finds the key to continue on his path of photography and overcome life’s biggest setbacks.

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Sunday July 16, 2023

Family Sunday: Lilo & Stitch

Admission to the film is free as a part of Family Sunday presented by Bank of Hawai‘i Foundation. No registration required.

A young and parentless girl adopts a “dog” from the local pound, unaware that it's supposedly a dangerous scientific experiment that's taken refuge on Earth and is now hiding from its creator and those who see it as a menace.

Thursday July 20, 2023

2:00pm: HSFF 2023 Shorts Program

See a selection of shorts from around the world that explores all the different aspects of surfing.

Jocko
Directed by Matt Lutrell. 2023. Hawai‘i. 4 min.
Waves roll by. Jocko Sutherland takes to the ocean with Low Light. Special thanks to Jock Sutherland, Gavin Sutherland, Dave Homcy, and Gavin Murai.

Summer of '69
Directed by Randy Rarick. 2019. Hawai‘i. 13 min.
Randy Rarick, Willie Asprey, and Leah Dawson talk about and ride some classic boards of 1969 at Sunset Beach.

Stoker Machine
Directed by Darieus Legg. 2023. USA. 12 min.
In this animated short, Chad Campbell, an expert surfer, discovers a mysterious surfboard on Hawai‘i Island. The retro board provides only a phone number and an email address as clues to its origin, leading Chad to accidentally uncover a California Central Coast surf legend. The man they call "Stoker."

Merry Kaliyuga
Directed by Horace Martins. 2023. Morocco. 11 min.
A trip led by nature through the old and the new world.

The Physics of Noseriding
Directed by Lauren Hill. 2022. Australia. 10 min.
The noseride is one of surfing’s peak moments: part fluid dynamics, part magic. But how does noseriding actually work? What makes this suspension between sea and sky even possible? The Physics of Noseriding explores the question through the eyes of Namaala, a young surfer whose people were flying on the water 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 for surfing’s fluid dance.

Yama
Directed by Maddie Meddings and Lucy Small. 2023. Australia/Ghana. 25 min.
Yama follows Australian surfer and activist Lucy Small as she travels to Ghana to meet a group of pioneering female surfers and skaters.

Click Here To Get Tickets

Friday July 21, 2023

2:00pm: Surf Like a Girl 2023

A collection focused on the experiences of our women in the water.

Synchronism
Directed by Scott Wynn & Elley Norman. 2023. USA. 4 min.
Synchronism juxtaposes surfer Josie Prendergast and synchronized swimmers in the ocean, both performing in unison—a first ever of its kind.

Below Surface
Directed by Chloe Keeley. 2022. Australia. 14 min.
Below Surface follows longboard surfer Lucy Small as she grasps the baton from the renegades who fought for equal opportunity in the world of surfing decades before her.

Malia
Directed by Morgan Maassen. 2022. USA. 16 min.
A trip around the world with Kaua?i’s Malia Manuel.

Night Crawler: Chelsea Woody
Directed by Chelsea Woody. 2021. USA. 5 min.
Night Crawler explores and hopefully restores the beauty and quiet of surfing at dusk into darkness. As the moon illuminates the shadows of the unseen, we can momentarily escape from the current chaos in the world. But who is allowed to find solace in outdoor spaces at night?

Beyond Sunset
Directed by Keith Malloy. 2023. Hawai‘i. 25 min.
It’s easy to think that she just gets it from her father. After all, Roger Erickson is a legend. But when Emi is out there charging, she deserves for you to know that no one’s on that board but her.

7:00pm: Whistle of Wilderness + Surf Poets Society

Join us for a free community event featuring the work of local filmmakers, poets and artists. The program begins with the Surf Poets Society featuring live poetry readings and artwork inspired by surfing and the ocean, helmed by this year’s festival graphic artist, Manny Aloha. Chris Miyashiro’s second feature, Whistle in the Wilderness, follows the live segment.

Whistle of Wilderness
Directed by Chris Miyashiro. 2021. Hawai‘i. 51 min.
Whistle of Wilderness is local artist Chris Miyashiro’s second independent feature film. Created in the midst of a pandemic lockdown, the film focuses on a young islander's perspective of the world as it unfolds into a labyrinth of potential. It is a journey into the wilderness of the mind as an artistic voyager seeking a life lived well.

The Surf Poets Society is a grassroots community of stoked individuals who create art inspired by the poetic aspects of surfing and the ocean—the glide, the moods, the passion and the people that dedicate their lives to the waves and the water. Surf Poets gather to share poems, stories and all forms of surf inspired art. Founded by artist Manny Aloha as a meaningful way to meet other surf-inspired artists around the world, the Surf Poets Society is evolving to bring greater awareness about our oceans to sustain creative, sustainable lifestyles.

Click Here To Get Tickets

Saturday July 22, 2023

2:00pm: Surf Nation

Surf Nation is a feature-length observational documentary that tells a story beginning in Hainan, China’s southernmost province, where hundreds of athletes as young as nine years old train as part of the Chinese National Surf team. These young recruits from around the country have left their families and are paid to become surfers with Olympic aspirations. Shot in a tropical paradise with miles of empty beaches, the film captures aspiring athletes and their international coaches who live in an old hotel that has become the hub of surfing in China.

Over two years, we follow two of China’s top surfers, Alex, 17, who dreams of competing at the highest levels of pro surfing but has contempt for training, and Lolo, 22, who rejects a traditional life for a Chinese woman and surfs despite her parents’ disapproval. We follow them as they train with the team, compete and discover what they want their lives to be.

Click Here To Get Tickets

7:00pm: Facing Monsters

Facing Monsters digs deep into the psyche of enigmatic West Australian “slab wave” surfer Kerby Brown, a man whose connection with the ocean runs as deep as his love for his family. This film is far more than just a surfing story. It’s an unapologetic musing into the essence of Kerby and his family as we join them on his quest to ride a ferocious slab wave in the deep Southern Ocean that no one on the planet has surfed before. It’s a film about fear, addictions, and family bonds as we explore what drives Kerby, what anchors him and why he’s obsessed with pitting himself against one of nature’s most intimidating forces.

Directed by Bentley Dean (Contact, Tanna) and produced by Chris Veerhuis (Red Dog: True Blue, Breath) along with executive producers Frank Chidiac, Susanne Morrison and co-producer Sonya Rifici, this suspenseful, action-packed drama unravels Kerby’s inner demons while confronting the real-world consequences that his death-defying passion could have on his family.

Featuring stunning cinematography by Rick Rifici (Breath, Blueback), we are right there with Kerby immersed in the ferocity of the Southern Ocean and the thunder of its deadly monsters as he prepares to take on the ride of his life. We become part of Kerby’s journey into the unknown as Facing Monsters transports viewers to places and feelings never before experienced on the big screen.

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Sunday July 23, 2023

2:00pm: Wade in the Water + A New Wave

Wade in the Water: A Journey into Black Surfing and Aquatic Culture reclaims the 1,000-year-old tradition of Black surfing. Braiding historical accounts with modern-day testimonials, the film dismantles the racial barriers of conventional surf culture, delves into the overlooked history of Black surfing's legacy, and honors its current movement—inspiring the next generation of Black surfers.

A New Wave
Deeply connected to the ocean, elite surfer Michael February and his father reflect on what it means to represent South Africa on the world stage.

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Thursday July 27, 2023

2:00pm: Through the Doggy Door

Through The Doggy Door revolves around the story of Sheldon Paishon, a talented surfer who was born and raised on the rugged shores of O‘ahu’s Westside. Far from an idyllic Hawaiian paradise, the community has been ravaged by drugs, poverty and the long reverberations of colonialism. At the age of 12, Sheldon’s parents lost their house, and the family was homeless, living out of a tent for the remainder of Sheldon’s adolescence.

With a deep drive to overcome all odds and live out his dream of professional surfing, Sheldon battles through the harsh realities of houselessness. Eventually he is taken under the wing of pro surfer Mason Ho, who recognized Sheldon's immense talent and helps guide him through a world he’s seen very little of. Can Sheldon capitalize on the opportunities afforded him and become a pro surfer or will the relentless pull of poverty be too much to overcome?

The film aims to inspire and ignite a deeper conversation about the realities of homelessness, the struggle of poverty in Hawai‘i and the importance of self-belief.

Click Here To Get Tickets

Friday July 28, 2023

2:00pm: Searching for Tom Curren

The Honolulu Surf Film Festival is honored to present the Hawai‘i premiere of the 25th Anniversary digitally remastered classic surf film Searching for Tom Curren, in loving memory of Sonny Miller. Rip Curl first presented the late, great Sonny Miller's film in late 1996, and in 1997 it won the Surfer Poll Awards Best Movie.

In the early 1990s, three-time World Champion Tom Curren was in his competitive prime but decided to leave the tour to join the Rip Curl Search program with filmmaker Sonny Miller at the helm. The result is the now iconic Searching for Tom Curren.

The film takes us along with Tom as he discovers new waves around the world, tests the limits of board design and offers insight into his refreshing and thoughtful perspective on life and surfing. Tom has influenced a generation of surfers with his humble and kind character and his pure, clean and radical approach to riding waves. Searching for Tom Curren is a must-see film for every surfer.

Click Here To Get Tickets

7:00pm: Stop Playin’ With ‘Em + Hail Mary

See two films about East Coast surfers exploring waves warm and cold around the world.

Stop Playin’ With ‘Em
What was filmed over the course of two trips totaling 28 days, and born out of a right-place-at-the-right-time circumstance, Stop Playin’ With ‘Em is a surf film project following Quest Soliman and Paul Godette, two skaters turned surfers based in Rockaway Beach, New York, relocating to Bocas del Toro, Panama, for five months to get the most out of the island's peak surf season (and admittedly escaping the Northeast’s brutal winter season). Along the way, the two meet and surf with not only other travelers, but locals of all different backgrounds. Over the course of the trip, they experience all that the islands have to offer, as well as represent New York City's diverse surfing community in Rockaway Beach.

Hail Mary
From multi-award-winning filmmaker Ben Gulliver comes this hotly anticipated, cinematically stunning biopic. Hail Mary charts the humble beginnings of groundbreaking surfer Balaram Stack from his boyhood in New York to his journey to become one of the world’s most respected chargers.

Featuring snowy hurricane swells at home and cavernous Tahitian pits, this is a look at Balaram’s past, present and future, revealing how his catlike reflexes and unflinching prowess in some of the world’s most intimidating lineups have made this down-to-earth East Coast local a true North Shore standout. With glorious cinematography, epic waves and an original soundtrack, this film is also an ode to Balaram’s mother, Mary, whose unending support has helped him realize his dream.

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Saturday July 29, 2023

2:00pm: Birth of the Endless Summer

Birth of The Endless Summer follows Californian surf pioneer Dick Metz, as he vagabonds the globe from 1958 to 1961. Metz's train-jumping, steamship-hopping tour, in the vein of On the Road and The Motorcycle Diaries, led to Metz's discovery of "the perfect wave" at Cape St. Francis, South Africa.

Dick Metz's travels not only inspired his friend, Bruce Brown, but also paved the way for the film The Endless Summer to become a reality. Birth of The Endless Summer follows the 90-year-old Metz back to South Africa to retrace the steps of his original journey.

Click Here To Get Tickets

7:00pm: Through the Doggy Door

Through The Doggy Door revolves around the story of Sheldon Paishon, a talented surfer who was born and raised on the rugged shores of O‘ahu’s Westside. Far from an idyllic Hawaiian paradise, the community has been ravaged by drugs, poverty and the long reverberations of colonialism. At the age of 12, Sheldon’s parents lost their house, and the family was homeless, living out of a tent for the remainder of Sheldon’s adolescence.

With a deep drive to overcome all odds and live out his dream of professional surfing, Sheldon battles through the harsh realities of houselessness. Eventually he is taken under the wing of pro surfer Mason Ho, who recognized Sheldon's immense talent and helps guide him through a world he’s seen very little of. Can Sheldon capitalize on the opportunities afforded him and become a pro surfer or will the relentless pull of poverty be too much to overcome?

The film aims to inspire and ignite a deeper conversation about the realities of homelessness, the struggle of poverty in Hawai‘i and the importance of self-belief.

Click Here To Get Tickets

Sunday July 30, 2023

2:00pm: Surfing the 50’s: Tribute to Joey Cabell

HoMA continues its collaboration with the Bud Browne Film Archives to present Bud Browne’s golden era film Surfing the 50’s. Narrated by Peter Cole and John Kelly, this film captures the history of surfing’s golden period, which includes the birth of early modern big-wave surfing, featuring surf icons Joey Cabell, Buzzy Trent, George Downing, Peter Cole, Greg Noll, Ricky Grigg, Kimo Hollinger, Duke Kahanamoku, and many others surfing Waimea, Sunset, and Makaha. This film showing is a special tribute to surfing great Joey Cabell, who is joined by talk story panelists Darrick Doerner, Mark Healy, Randy Rarick, Jock Sutherland, and Dave Wassel in honoring our surfing kupuna greats and the current big wave riders of today.

Surfing the 50’s will be preceded by the short film Joey Cabell, Man of Water.

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Date: Thursday July 6, 2023 - Sunday July 30, 2023

Location: HoMA Doris Duke Theatre - 900 S Beretania St., Honolulu, HI 96814

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