2023 TISFF:
A Resounding Success
As we reflect on that exceptional year, our deepest gratitude extends to everyone who contributed, attended, and supported the 2023 Tamarindo International Surf Film Festival. A special acknowledgment went to Kevin Miller, Founder, Executive Director, and Chair of the Board of Directors of the Florida Surf Film Festival, and Tom Macaluso, Creative Director. Their invaluable support in curating and bringing these remarkable films to our festival was instrumental. It was through this collective energy and enthusiasm that the festival continued to redefine and elevate surf culture on a global scale.
In its 3rd year, the festival organically burgeoned into a prestigious, well-attended event in this part of the world. Collaborating with some of the most visionary surf filmmakers globally, our theaters were brimming every night, hosting the grandest celebration of contemporary surf culture. The carefully handpicked lineup of films aimed to ignite inspiration, thrill the audience, and entertain, catering to both the surfing community and newcomers to this captivating world.
The 2023 festival was a testament to the passion, dedication, and creative spirit within the surf film industry. It was a journey of growth, connection, and rekindled enthusiasm within the surf community, setting new standards for what the festival represented.
Starring: Joaquin and Julian Azulay
Feature Film: 110 minutes | English Subtitles
A 22-month antropological expedition on the African continent. Two brothers travel in a 1985 former military ambulance from Spain to South Africa. The aim is to encourage horizontal human relationships through an unprecedented surf exploration and exchange of cultures in this diverse and endless continent. The scars of colonies, civil wars and contemporary social inequality, political instability and resource exploitation make the continent one of the most intense in the world. From now on, Africa sets the rules.
Producer/Filmmaker: Joaquin and Julian Azulay
Animation short: 3 minutes
This short animated film features hundreds of skateboards. snowboards and surfboards choreographed at 24 boards per second, creating an ebullient montage of flickering images illustrating the history of board making.
Producer/Filmmaker: Patrick Smith
Starring: Emi and Roger Strickland
Short Film: 40 minutes
It's easy to think she just got it from her dad. After all, Roger Strickland is a legend on the North Shore in his own right, and she rides his boards - long guns with one fin. But when Emi is out there, charging, riding 15 to 20 foot faces, and getting rag dolled at Jaws, she deserves you to know that yes, maybe it's in her blood, but no one is on that board but her.
Producer/Filmmaker: Keith Malloy / Arlo Rosner.
Starring: Kerby Brown
Feature Film: 90 minutes
Facing Monsters is a feature-length documen-tary that digs deep into the psyche of enigmatic West Australian slab wave surfer Kerby Brown, a man whose connection to the ocean runs as deep as his love for his family. This movie is much more than just a surf story. It's an unashamed musing on the essence or keroy and his family as we join them on his quest to ride a raging slab wave in the deep southern ocean that no one on the planet has ever surfed. 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 taking on one or natures most Intimidating
Producer/Filmmaker: Bentley Dean
Starring: Mark McInnis
Feature Film: 35 minutes
None is more infamous for death and destruction than the frigid Bering. With Alaska to the east and Russia's northernmost tundra to the west, this terrifying body of water is more known for the Discovery Channel's iconic show Deadliest Catch than world class surfing. But where there's a shoreline. there's often surf to be found, even in the most unlikely of locations, and that's exactly what Ben Weiland and Mark McInnis found in the middle of this gruesome sea.
Producer/Filmmaker: Ben Weiland
Starring: Lauren Hill
Short Film: 10 minutes
The Physics of Noseriding explores the question through the eyes of Namaala, a young surfer whose people flew on the water long Detore the world knew what surting was. she takes us on a journey from mystery to mastery as the wave, the surfboard and the surfer come together for the perfect dance of surfing.
Producer/Filmmaker: Lauren Hill
Starring: Stephanie Gilmore Derrick Disney
Feature Film: 40 minutes
The film, shot over three years in Hawaii, Indonesia, France, Mexico, California and Australia, is narrated by Californian surf icon John Peck and features a vast cast including Ryan Burch, Bryce Young, Derrick Disney and Stephanie Gilmore. John Peck guides the viewer through his vision of what the sun represents and why it activates our inner soul. "NATURAL HIGH" expands upon the fringes of surf design and theory, featuring the renaissance shapes of Rvan Burch. Robin Kegel and Derrick Disney," says John Peck. "I define surfing as the action art of riding a wave of energy, leaving only a disappearing wake behind ... a total now-dance of harmony with the waves energy at its source. when swim or paddle out to catch an ocean wave, I'm exercising my forgotten wings". "When I wait for the right wave to come to carry me, I am meditating on natural reality and absorbing vital minerals from the mother of all biological life on this planet ... the ocean. "Patience, health and wisdom naturally result".
Producer/Filmmaker: Jack Coleman
