Surf film
Surf movies fall into three distinct genres:
- The surfing documentary — targeting the surfing enthusiast.
- The 1960s beach party films — targeting the broader community.
- Fictional feature films with a focus on the reality of surfing.
Surfing documentaries
The earliest-known footage of people surfing was captured by Robert Kates Bonine in 1906 in Hawaii. Bonine was shooting an actuality film for Thomas Edison from May 31 through at least August 12, 1906. Edison's film, Hawaiian Islands, was distributed in 1907 and features more than 30 segments, of which three depict people surfing.The surfing documentary film was pioneered by Bud Browne in the early 1950s and later popularized by director Bruce Brown in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Surfing films were later advanced by Greg MacGillivray and Jim Freeman in the 1970s and beyond; MacGillivray and Freeman later went on to film IMAX movies such as To Fly! and Speed. The genre itself has been defined by surfers traveling with their friends and documenting the experience on film. Starting in the 1960s, the films of Bruce Brown, Greg Noll, Bud Browne, John Severson and others were projected for audiences in music halls, civic centers, coffee houses, and high school gyms and auditoriums.
During the 1980s, the market for surf films surged with the release of more affordable video cameras. By the following decade, the surfing market became saturated with low- and medium-budget surf films, many with soundtracks that reflected surf music. With the advent of surf films on VHS and DVD led to a decrease in public showings. Furthermore, large surf brands began sponsoring surf films to promote clothing and product sales. Titles like Sonny Miller's The Search for Rip Curl redefined the genre with exotic locales, big budgets, and big name surfers such as Tom Curren.
Since the late 1990s, there has been a revival of the independent surf film. Artists such as The Malloys, Jack Johnson, and Jason Baffa have reinvented the genre by shooting self-financed 16mm films with music by artists including G. Love, Alexi Murdoch, Mojave 3, White Buffalo, and Donavon Frankenreiter, creating what the surf media has called "modern classics." Some venues still show surfing films on the big screen.
Examples of surfing documentaries include:Hawaiian Islands Surfing, National Sport in the Hawaiian Islands Burton Holmes’ Hawaiian Shores Topical Budget 884-2 Bucking the Waves The Leader News : Pictorial Sportreel: Surfboard Rhythm Thrills of the Surf Surfing Daze Slippery When Wet Surf Crazy Honolulu Surfing Daze Barefoot Adventure Surfing Hollow Days Waterlogged Gone With the Wave King of the Wild Waves The Living Curl The Endless Summer The Moods of Surfing The Fantastic Plastic Machine The Innermost Limits of Pure Fun Five Summer Stories Morning of the Earth Crystal Voyager Tubular Swells Storm Riders Momentum Endless Summer II The Kill Thicker than Water September Sessions The Endless Summer: Revisited Liquid Time Surf Movie: reels 1-14 Blue Horizon Step Into Liquid Glass Love Riding Giants Somewhere, Anywhere, Everywhere Singlefin: yellow The Seedling AKA Girl Surfer Billabong Odyssey Fair Bits Going With The Flow: Classic California Soul Surfing Sprout A Broke Down Melody Free As A Dog Peel: The Peru Project - A Surf Odyssey The Secret Machine One California Day Sipping Jetstreams The Forgotten Coast Bustin' Down the Door New Emissions of Light and Sound Live: A Music & Surfing Experience Water man Waveriders Out of Place The Present Fiberglass and Megapixels First Love God Went Surfing With The Devil White WashYear Zero Drift Here & Now: A Day in the Life of Surfing Spirit of Akasha Strange Rumblings in Shangri-LA View from a Blue Moon Bethany Hamilton: Unstoppable Self Discovery for Social Survival
- ''In The Water, Behind The Lens''
Beach Party films
An alternative type of surf movie is the "beach party film" or "surf-ploitation flick" by true surfers. These films had little to do with the authentic sport and culture of surfing, and instead represented movies that attempted to cash in on the growing popularity of surfing among youth in the early 1960s. Examples of Beach Party films include:Gidget Gidget Goes Hawaiian Beach Party Ride [the Wild Surf] Surf Party Beach Blanket Bingo Malibu Beach The Beach Girls Spring Break Hardbodies Back to the Beach- ''Teen Beach Movie''