Riding Giants thoughts
06-14-04, 10:13 AM
#1
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Riding Giants thoughts
I saw Riding Giants this weekend at the Waterfront Film Festival, which is Stacey Peralta's follow-up to Dogtown and Z-Boys. It was a sold out show at over 500 packed into a space that was not cooled very well. The sound had a reverb to it throughout the warehouse for boats that it was held in. The picture from the projector was less than thrilling. With these strikes against it, I came out smiling. Literally smiling. The reason? I just got out of a history class on big wave surfing that I wish I had taken in college.
The movie is much more of a documentary and history lesson than movies like Step Into Liquid or Dogtown and Z-Boys. It started from the beginning of surfing, went through the ages naming all of the influences and important people in the world of surfing, culminating to big wave surfing present day. The shots used, the minor SFX and interviews with various surfers were well done. All of the newly filmed footage for current day surfing was amazing. The things these big wave surfers do are simply astounding. Laird Hamilton is my newly found hero.
So in short, this documentary was awesome, and I highly recommend seeing this whenever it comes out. Stacey Peralta unfortunately could not be there due to transferring the film from DV cams and what not to film stock. The program director that introduced the film though stated how difficult it was to attin the film for the festival as Sony Classic Pictures did not want it released yet. Stacey Peralta had to go above them and convince some execs to send it out for a one time showing at the festival to give a nod to all of the surfers in Michigan that try to ride the Great Lake's waves.
***.5/****
The movie is much more of a documentary and history lesson than movies like Step Into Liquid or Dogtown and Z-Boys. It started from the beginning of surfing, went through the ages naming all of the influences and important people in the world of surfing, culminating to big wave surfing present day. The shots used, the minor SFX and interviews with various surfers were well done. All of the newly filmed footage for current day surfing was amazing. The things these big wave surfers do are simply astounding. Laird Hamilton is my newly found hero.
So in short, this documentary was awesome, and I highly recommend seeing this whenever it comes out. Stacey Peralta unfortunately could not be there due to transferring the film from DV cams and what not to film stock. The program director that introduced the film though stated how difficult it was to attin the film for the festival as Sony Classic Pictures did not want it released yet. Stacey Peralta had to go above them and convince some execs to send it out for a one time showing at the festival to give a nod to all of the surfers in Michigan that try to ride the Great Lake's waves.
***.5/****
06-14-04, 10:24 PM
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Saw it this past weekend at the Atlanta Film Festival, and I loved it as well. I was really amazed at all the old footage he had access to, and it really made the stories come alive.
Beautiful shots, great soundtrack, lots of funny stories.. definitely check it out if you have to slightest interest in surfing, or documentaries in general! I give it 4/4
Beautiful shots, great soundtrack, lots of funny stories.. definitely check it out if you have to slightest interest in surfing, or documentaries in general! I give it 4/4
Last edited by Geminix; 06-14-04 at 10:27 PM.
08-18-04, 01:44 PM
#3
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I saw this this past weekend. Pretty good. I'm not into surfing but was around it growing up in Santa Cruz, CA. After seeing it i had to ask my Dad if he got into surfing pre-Gidgit or post-Gidgit. He had no idea what i was talking about but said he started in 57 and his first boards were plywood then balsa wood, so he was pre-Gidgit
