As mentioned previously, my sister is doing some pretty remarkable anthropological documentation on the early Southern California surf culture, which I can’t help but see as related to the same yearning that led our project designer James Wharram to look towards Oceania for inspiration for a way to live that offered the possiblity of transcending consumerism.
She’s been encouraging me to watch the documentary SURFWISE for a while now; not because it offers answers, but because it poses provocative questions, especially if you’re a parent concerned with neither inflicting your own quirks on your children, but also opening their eyes to a world of wider possiblities than those offered by a purely transactional culture.
A few years ago we got one of those all in one DVD/VHS/Home-theater thingos with a bunch of speakers and about 1/2 mile of wires to hook it all up. I think we paid about $179 for it, which seemed like a great deal at the time, but unlike my parents’ KLM stereo, which lasted for a few decades, our home theater machine thingo only lasted a few years. The DVD draw went lazy and fixing it just isn’t an option.
So we got this nifty new LG Blueray player for about $50, and one of the reason we picked this model is it also does Netflix streaming. Cool.
Unfortunately SURFWISE is not available on Netflix streaming (it’s in our cue) but they did have DEEP WATER, documentary film my sailing and filmmaking mentor Bob Wise told me about a couple of years ago.
DEEP WATER is the true story about the world’s first single-handed, non-stop, around the world sailing race. If I had to sum it up in a few words, it’s a story about doing the right thing for the wrong reasons and doing the right thing for the wrong reasons.
I watched it this afternoon and it hit me harder than any film I can remember. Quoting from the film, “We’re all human beings, and we have dreams.”
Where those dreams take us can be amazing, or tragic, or both.
