Brown filmed in Senegal, Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Tahiti, Hawaii and California. Things didn’t always go according to plan, but Brown wasn’t the kind of guy who did all that much planning anyway. He was more in the school of flow. Somehow, even when they had no luck with the surf, something would happen. They’d meet someone (like future world champ Nat Young) and something happened.

So, a day late or not, everything turns out just as perfect as the wave they discover at Cape St. Francis in South Africa in one of the most revelatory and compelling moments in surf filmdom. There are bigger, better, scarier and more exciting waves in lots of other surf flicks, but none pay off quite as satisfyingly as “Bruce’s Beauties.” There, in that sequence, was magic indeed. When the film was finished, Brown knew he had something good in the can.

The Endless Summer was a big success on the circuit — so big that Brown and his promotions man, Paul Allen (who ran ahead arranging shows and coordinating publicity) thought they might be able to attract a national distributor. With Brown’s easy, homespun narration woven into a nice soundtrack by the Sandals, they worked on trying to sell it, came up dry and finally decided a test run in the U.S. heartland would be convincing, if it worked. So they booked a theater in Wichita, Kansas, and the film broke house records there for two solid weeks.

When that didn’t work, they took the film to Manhattan and booked it into the Kuyps Bay Theatre, where Brown charmed the bored Big Apple critics at a preview screening, telling them he’d paid a hundred bucks for the room, so he expected good reviews. He got them, and the rest is history.

“For some reason,” says Brown, “the real entrenched film critics seemed to like it, maybe because it was different from what they were used to seeing. We weren’t one of them, so a lot of the media in New York were into helping us out, not hurting us. If they did a review and wrote, ‘Brown did a shitty movie,’ we’d have been dead. But nobody knew who I was, and maybe they felt it wasn’t worth criticizing, so they pretty much gave us good reviews and helped us out.”

The Endless Summer played the Kuyps Bay for a year. Meanwhile, it was picked up by Cinema 5 for national (and then worldwide) distribution. The reaction of Kansans and New Yorkers was echoed by audiences around the country when the film finally went into distribution in 1966. It was similar to the reaction of the people crowding the beaches in Senegal and Ghana when Hynson and August paddled out and rode waves right in front of their villages — they were stoked! Brown, too, was stoked; his $50,000 investment brought him millions.

“I’ve always been kind of a dreamer,” Brown says. “You dream that something like that is gonna happen, and it did.” — Drew Kampion, May 2000

Music, Animation, Comedy, Spinal Tap, K.D Lang

Shot on location in Hawaii, Florida, Indonesia, Tahiti, Nicaragua, and featuring exclusive hurricane footage of the Outer Banks.

This powerful, relevant, high-quality documentary also features: Damien Hobgood, CJ Hobgood, Matt Beacham, Jesse Hines, and Will Tant.

Playing for Change is a multimedia movement created to inspire, connect, and bring peace to the world through music. The idea for this project arose from a common belief that music has the power to break down boundaries and overcome distances between people. No matter whether people come from different geographic, political, economic, spiritual or ideological backgrounds, music has the universal power to transcend and unite us as one human race. And with this truth firmly fixed in our minds, we set out to share it with the world.

The Production

We built a mobile recording studio, equipped with all the same equipment used in the best studios, and traveled to wherever the music took us. As technology changed, our power demands were downsized from golf cart batteries to car batteries, and finally to laptops. Similarly, the quality with which we were able to film and document the project was gradually upgraded from a variety of formats– each the best we could attain at the time—finally to full HD.

One thing that never changed throughout the process was our commitment to create an environment for the musicians in which they could create freely and that placed no barriers between them and those who would eventually experience their music. By leading with that energy and intent everywhere we traveled, we were freely given access to musicians and locations that are usually inaccessible. In this respect, the inspiration that originally set us on this path became a co-creator of the project along with us!

The Effect

Over the course of this project, we decided it was not enough for our crew just to record and share this music with the world; we wanted to create a way to give back to the musicians and their communities that had shared so much with us. And so in 2007 we created the Playing for Change Foundation, a separate 501(c)3 nonprofit corporation whose mission is to do just that. In early 2008, we established Timeless Media, a for-profit entity that funds and extends the work of Playing for Change. Later that year, Timeless Media entered into a joint venture with the Concord Music Group through the support of label co-owner and entertainment legend Norman Lear and Concord Music Group executive vice president of A&R John Burk. Our goal is to bring PFC’s music, videos and message to the widest possible audience.

Now, musicians from all over the world are brought together to perform benefit concerts that build music and art schools in communities that are in need of inspiration and hope. In addition to benefit concerts, the Playing for Change band also performs shows around the world. When audiences see and hear musicians who have traveled thousands of miles from their homes, united in purpose and chorus on one stage, everyone is touched by music’s unifying power.

And now, everyone can participate in this transformative experience by joining the Playing for Change Movement. People are hosting screenings, musicians are holding benefit concerts of every size, fans are spreading the message of Playing for Change through our media, and this is only the beginning. Together, we will connect the world through music!

Kutch quit his job and persuaded his girlfriend of eight years to join him. He crushed two tons of grapes for his first vintage of 150 cases at tiny cult winemaker Kosta Browne Winery in Sonoma County’s Russian River Valley and was getting advice from some of the region’s star winemakers. “It was like being on an all-star high-school team,” he says. “I was sweating, drenched, working 14-hour days — and happy.”

This is the other side of “Sideways.”

Totally un-scripted, unrehearsed, “Pinot: Escape from Wall Street” follows Jamie Kutch and his wife Kristen over the course of a year. Filmed in high definition in the vineyards and wineries of Sonoma County, California, the movie features natural dialogue with no talking heads, no narration and no voice over.

Trailer for the 8-minute comedy “Package for Maxwell,” a strange but mostly true story of bravery in a shipping store.

Riding Giants is a 2004 documentary film directed and narrated by Stacy Peralta, a famous skater/surfer who helped define modern skateboarding. The movie traces the origins of surfing and specifically focuses on the art of big wave riding. Some of the featured surfers are Greg Noll, Laird Hamilton, and Jeff Clark, and surfing pioneers such as Mickey Munoz.

The film begins with a historical overview, starting at its Hawaiian beginnings, then moves on to focus on the dangerous lure of big wave surfing (surfing waves that can reach up to 70 feet). The documentary chronicles the evolution of riding at Hawaii’s Waimea Bay in the 1950s, the revolution of lighter boards, and tow-in surfing to allow for “riding giants”. Three surfers who are part of this multi-generational evolution are spotlighted: Greg Noll is shown as a fearless big wave rider during the 1950s and 60s; Jeff Clark who discovered Mavericks in Northern California and surfed there alone for years; and Laird Hamilton, the contemporary surfer who brings tow-in riding to the limelight.

Peralta previously directed the acclaimed documentary Dogtown and Z-Boys, which documented the rise of skateboarding, of which he was an integral part. The French producer Franck Marty, alongside with his partners, chose him to direct a new breed of big wave riding documentary film. He has said that the primary purpose of making a surfing documentary was that he “wanted to see a film like this”, and that he hoped it helped to answer the question “why people choose to devote their entire lives to the pursuit of riding waves.”

Riding Giants utilizes stills, archive footage, fake “re-enacted” archive footage, home movies, and interviews. Some of the surfers interviewed include Jeff Clark, Laird Hamilton, Dave Kalama, Gerry Lopez, Greg Noll, and Kelly Slater.

The film features Robert Miano and Dion Derizzo and a score from KRONOS QUARTET (Requiem for a Dream , The Fountain)

Beautifully photographed in 4K resolution digital cinematography, the film is a visually stunning chronicle of the history of the telescope from the time of Galileo, its profound impact upon the science of astronomy, and how both have shaped the way we view ourselves in the midst of an infinite universe.

Ring of Fire consists of 5 films:

Beyond the Ring of Fire
Dance of the Warriors
Dream Wanderers of Borneo
East of Krakatoa
Spice Island Saga

Riding Giants is a 2004 documentary film directed and narrated by Stacy Peralta, a famous skater/surfer who helped define modern skateboarding. The movie traces the origins of surfing and specifically focuses on the art of big wave riding. Some of the featured surfers are Greg Noll, Laird Hamilton, and Jeff Clark, and surfing pioneers such as Mickey Munoz.

The film begins with a historical overview, starting at its Hawaiian beginnings, then moves on to focus on the dangerous lure of big wave surfing (surfing waves that can reach up to 70 feet). The documentary chronicles the evolution of riding at Hawaii’s Waimea Bay in the 1950s, the revolution of lighter boards, and tow-in surfing to allow for “riding giants”. Three surfers who are part of this multi-generational evolution are spotlighted: Greg Noll is shown as a fearless big wave rider during the 1950s and 60s; Jeff Clark who discovered Mavericks in Northern California and surfed there alone for years; and Laird Hamilton, the contemporary surfer who brings tow-in riding to the limelight.

Peralta previously directed the acclaimed documentary Dogtown and Z-Boys, which documented the rise of skateboarding, of which he was an integral part. The French producer Franck Marty, alongside with his partners, chose him to direct a new breed of big wave riding documentary film. He has said that the primary purpose of making a surfing documentary was that he “wanted to see a film like this”, and that he hoped it helped to answer the question “why people choose to devote their entire lives to the pursuit of riding waves.”

Riding Giants utilizes stills, archive footage, fake “re-enacted” archive footage, home movies, and interviews. Some of the surfers interviewed include Jeff Clark, Laird Hamilton, Dave Kalama, Gerry Lopez, Greg Noll, and Kelly Slater.

The soundtrack includes music from several Grammy winners: Pablo Ziegler, one of the most famous tango composers, Michael Bacon of THE BACON BROTHERS, Philippe Quint, Martin St-Pierre (‘SPIDERMAN’), Jennie DeVoe, Gennaro and Tosso Hettinger.

Executive Producer John Gallagher is an award winning director, writer and producer. His films have been distributed by New Line, HBO, MGM, Columbia Tristar, Showtime, Samsung and Polygram. John’s features as a writer-director – BLUE MOON, THE DELI, CUPIDITY, MEN LIE – have earned a dozen awards at international film festivals. Credits as producer include HOT BABY, THE INSURGENTS, HIGH TIMES’ POTLUCK and ANIMAL ROOM. John has worked with such actors as Ben Gazzara, Zach Braff, Rita Moreno, Ice T., John Leguizamo, Michael Imperioli, Chris Noth, Gretchen Mol and Amanda Peet.

In MANGO TANGO, Marlene, a New York City dance teacher, is driven to therapy by the increasingly neurotic men she meets. A vacation in the German Alps turns out to be her biggest challenge yet…

Title: MANGO TANGO (2009, USA)
Director/ Writer: Marianne Hettinger
Genre: Romantic/ Black Comedy
Runtime: 98 min
Tagline: All Marlene ever wanted was to meet a nice guy…
Languages: 95% English, 5% German with subtitles
Filming Locations: New York City, USA, Augsburg and Bavarian Alps, Germany

Cast:
Marianne Hettinger (‘Order Of Redemption’, ‘Cradle Will Rock’, ‘Cupidity’)
Frederick Bosche
Michael E. Knight (3-time Emmy award winner)
David Parsons (dance legend)
Brian Vincent (‘The Deli’, ‘Blue Moon’)
Patrick Stephenson
Nicholas Kosovich (‘Dancing With The Stars’)
Johannes Hitzelberger (Bayerischer Rundfunk)

Cinematography by: Michele Civelli

Film Editing by: Martin Biehn

Vitruvius was a roman architect scholar whose ideas about proprtion and design influenced the visual style of the Renaissance. I took his idea of the golden section proportions and applied them to computer graphics and animation. This film was done as part of a class project for both an animation workshop and an electronic musical composition class that I attended. The film is experimental in nature. It explores the relationship between motion graphic techniques, electronic music and the use of traditional graphic design ideas as a way of visually organizing an animated film. The film is non-narrative in structure. My intention was to start with the notion of the Golden Section proportions as a starting point for initially organizing the visual look for a given scene within the film and then improvised the following visual images as far as I could before they started to become uninteresting and overly predictable. The style of the film combines both traditional card stock animation with animation done exclusively in the computer using commercially available software packages such as After Effects, Photoshop, Premiere, Illustrator, the Flaming Pear Plug-in and Painter. The music was initially composed in Finale and then re-orchestrated in Pro Tools to create the final soundtrack. Most importantly, the animation is intended to be fun.

Filmmaker: Dennis Michael Iannuzzi

Animation Techniques: 2D Computer

Genres: Microcinema, Avant-garde, Independent, Post Modern, Surreal, Art

Niches: Student, Youth/Teen, Children

Forms: Narrative Fiction, Short
Genres: Drama, Children Live Action, Coming of Age , Fantasy
Niches: Children

Chaturanga is the story of a love that is caught between conflicting worlds of ideas.

The lead protagonist Sachish fleets from radical positivism to religious mysticism in his quest for life’s meaning. However, his search ultimately yields nothing but crushing disillusionment. This is because he cannot square his abstract ideals with the powerful presences of two women in his life. One of them is Damini, a young Hindu widow, and the other is Nanibala, the abandoned mistress of Sachish’s own brother.

Sachish tries to convince himself that Nanibala is simply a helpless woman who needs to be ‘rescued’ by him. Similarly, during his later religious phase, he pretends that the widow Damini is merely an enticement of Nature that must be avoided at all costs for spiritual salvation.

Chaturanga thus becomes, after a point, a psychodrama of unbelievable cruelty. Nanibala becomes a victim of it because as a ‘fallen woman’ she can only be ’saved’, but her humanity cannot be recognized.

Damini is first given away by her dying husband, along with all her property, to a religious guru. She then falls in love with Sachish who can accept her only without her sexuality. Set in Colonial Bengal at the turn of the twentieth century, the film weaves a rich tapestry of crisscrossing desires and moralities.

When Bryan Jennings (Founder/Director of Walking On Water) was fourteen years old he was taken on his first surf trip by a local professional surfer. This trip had a lasting effect on his life. In Walking On Water Bryan returns the favor as he takes Tyler and Luke literally around the world in hopes that they too will forever be changed. Along the way they meet up with three-time world champion surfer Tom Curren, teen shark attack survivor Bethany Hamilton, top professional surfers C.J. and Damien Hobgood, and many others. Join Luke and Tyler as they travel to Hawaii, Peru, Australia, Indonesia, South Africa, and France. In this beautiful and inspiring film, the world becomes their classroom.

From the makers of The Outsiders and Noah’s Arc comes a story about finding faith on the journey of a lifetime.

“The Women and the Waves” was conceived out of Executive Producer, Heather Hudson’s passion for surfing, first… and being a female, second. Having surfed for three decades, Heather came to the conclusion that being a surfer, and being a female surfer has been quite a “trip”!

A few years back, filmmaker and “The Women and the Waves” co-producer, Peck Euwer asked Heather to be one of five subjects in his 2005 documentary, “The Craving”. She accepted. The focus of “The Craving” was surf addiction… how that works, what goes on in their heads. “The Craving” was raw, real life. It premiered at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival to a packed house at the Arlington Theater in 2006. Featuring five surfers, different ages, different backgrounds and all sharing the same drive to surf often!

After seeing it, Heather was completely and absolutely inspired! It occurred to her that she was the only woman featured in the film and had a strong desire to tell more of the surf story from the feminine perspective, a story that has always been there, but often overlooked or minimized in the surfing world. She approached Peck while surfing on a rarely uncrowded and perfect day. “I have your next surf film,” she said, pointing to her head. “It’s right here.” He smiled knowingly. (She had no idea what she was getting herself into!) – “Okay, let’s talk”, he replied. At that moment, the yet untitled documentary “The Women and the Waves” was born.

The trailer for our feature length film, “Alone Together”.

Two women, normally enemies, are forced to put aside their differences.

The Ventura Film Festival has many tasks that can be completed from anywhere in Ventura, CA and surrounding cities. Virtual tasks have no set location, and can usually be completed from home or using the Internet.

A volunteer work is not and should never be a required work.

A volunteer may or may not get paid or receive compensation for services rendered. General Andrew Jackson’s Tennessee Volunteers were paid by the General personally, although he did seek reimbursement at Washington for his expenditures.

Ventura Film Festival volunteers sell ticktes, get sponsors and perfom other tasks related to the Ventura Film Festival.

Things for volunteers to do:

1) sell tickets (online) at http://venturafilmfestival.org/buy-tickets
2) get sponsors
3) find friends on venturafilmfestival.org (http://venturafilmfestival.org/invites/importer.php)
4) add to myspace & facebook –> invite friends to join too (myspace.com/venturafilmfestival)
5) get more volunteers (http://venturafilmfestival.org/volunteer)

by Dylan O’Neil

HOT CHICKS! BLOOD! GORE! BOOZE! STORMTROOPERS! THE EPISODE LUCAS DOESN’T WANT YOU TO SEE!