Jason KingFirst Love (8/10)
February 13th 2011 09:37
:
Amazing Surfing Docco
Category: Reviews
First Love is about love, friendship and following your dreams. I had the pleasure of attending a screening for this today and I was so impressed with myself and Brookie for making it - we had less than 1hrs sleep last night and were so hungover it was criminal. I am quite pissed with myself though as the three leads were there and I was offered the opportunity to meet them after the screening but felt so horrible I couldn't do it - really wish I did now as these three girls will one day soon be world champions and besides that - they were so much bloody fun in the film I would love to spend time with them.
This feature length film of only 1hr follows the lives of three passionate young girls from Phillip Island and documents their trip to Hawaii - the first step on their journey to making a career out of surfing. The girls enjoy and love everything they do and watching it through the eyes of these three is hysterical and just a shiny world of joy, fun and passion for a sport they are all amazing at.
17-year-old Jess Laing has grown up surfing with, and competing against, her two friends Nikki van Dijk and India Payne. They're all sponsored, surf the same breaks and live within 10 minutes of each other. The girls are all different in their own ways, but one thing's for sure, they all love the same thing.
But when Jess is injured everything changes. Her trip to Hawaii is replaced with surgery, recovery and rehab. It's only her love of surfing that pulls her through. I truly feel sorry for Jess, and not just for the injury and recovery she went through but because she is probably the only female in the world of surfing with brown hair. Besides Jess everyone has blonde sun bleached hair
Discover the trials and tribulations of training, competitions and injury whilst gaining an insight into life on the tour through the eyes of three girls. With magic footage and stellar photography, First Love will surprise, entertain and inspire a generation of female surfers.
This film really gets into the spirit of the surfing circuit and it was amazing to see the camaraderie of the women's competitors - these women fight each other like Gladiators on their boards during the day and then at night hang out, cook BBQs, go shopping and party together. They are nothing like the men. It is also similar with their surfing - I find it more like watching women's tennis - not as hard hitting but more graceful, fluid and technical. The film also captures the heart and spirituality of surfing - it is a religious movement of sorts and it is a religion of pagans - the followers are all at one with nature - they reach a harmony with the earth's force to glide over it's sets of pristine waves. The film shows this well.
I have grown up my entire life on the Northern Beaches of NSW - I spend oodles of time at the beach and have always had boards at my house but never actually surfed - this actually inspires me - these girls make it look bloody easy. Perhaps 2011 can be the year I do my Manly Surf School.
The film has been going really well overseas having just won the Best Documentary at X-Dance film festival. XDance is basically the Sundance Sport film festival. Director Claire Gorman also took out the Emerging Film Maker award. Nice work guys - I think Claire has some amazing direction and the story told in the docco is very engaging - the girls are very loveable and exude this positive vibe that is extremely contagious. The film has some spectacular cinematography from Claire Gorman, a Phillip Island local. The copy of the film we watched was quite pixelated in many scenes - I am wondering if we got a lower resolution copy of the film for the screening or if the projector was not set up to screen it correctly. The photos on the site are all high resolution so am hoping the release of the film will be in a better presented format.
Another character in this film that really stands out is the amazing music - it is so beach scene it worked a treat. And I did not know one single band or artist and the film makers instead used all relative unknowns. There are songs by Dan Flynn, Matt Walters, Dash and Will, Big Scary, Tom Richardson, Justin Carter, Ghost Mutt, The Smoke, Dardanelles, Liz Cogger, Seth Sentry and HEAPS MORE - CLICKETY CLICK RIGHT HERE FOR THE MUSIC PAGE OF THE FILM FOR LINKS TO ALL THEIR MYSPACE PAGES. The soundtrack will soon be out on Itunes. Worth the buy!
The film is premiering on Valentines Day - a perfect release date for this title - it will then be in limited cinemas from Wed Feb 23rd. It's quite short and worth the viewing. And if you can't work out all the sponsors for the film you are blind - lots of product placement.
This feature length film of only 1hr follows the lives of three passionate young girls from Phillip Island and documents their trip to Hawaii - the first step on their journey to making a career out of surfing. The girls enjoy and love everything they do and watching it through the eyes of these three is hysterical and just a shiny world of joy, fun and passion for a sport they are all amazing at.
17-year-old Jess Laing has grown up surfing with, and competing against, her two friends Nikki van Dijk and India Payne. They're all sponsored, surf the same breaks and live within 10 minutes of each other. The girls are all different in their own ways, but one thing's for sure, they all love the same thing.
But when Jess is injured everything changes. Her trip to Hawaii is replaced with surgery, recovery and rehab. It's only her love of surfing that pulls her through. I truly feel sorry for Jess, and not just for the injury and recovery she went through but because she is probably the only female in the world of surfing with brown hair. Besides Jess everyone has blonde sun bleached hair
Discover the trials and tribulations of training, competitions and injury whilst gaining an insight into life on the tour through the eyes of three girls. With magic footage and stellar photography, First Love will surprise, entertain and inspire a generation of female surfers.
This film really gets into the spirit of the surfing circuit and it was amazing to see the camaraderie of the women's competitors - these women fight each other like Gladiators on their boards during the day and then at night hang out, cook BBQs, go shopping and party together. They are nothing like the men. It is also similar with their surfing - I find it more like watching women's tennis - not as hard hitting but more graceful, fluid and technical. The film also captures the heart and spirituality of surfing - it is a religious movement of sorts and it is a religion of pagans - the followers are all at one with nature - they reach a harmony with the earth's force to glide over it's sets of pristine waves. The film shows this well.
I have grown up my entire life on the Northern Beaches of NSW - I spend oodles of time at the beach and have always had boards at my house but never actually surfed - this actually inspires me - these girls make it look bloody easy. Perhaps 2011 can be the year I do my Manly Surf School.
The film has been going really well overseas having just won the Best Documentary at X-Dance film festival. XDance is basically the Sundance Sport film festival. Director Claire Gorman also took out the Emerging Film Maker award. Nice work guys - I think Claire has some amazing direction and the story told in the docco is very engaging - the girls are very loveable and exude this positive vibe that is extremely contagious. The film has some spectacular cinematography from Claire Gorman, a Phillip Island local. The copy of the film we watched was quite pixelated in many scenes - I am wondering if we got a lower resolution copy of the film for the screening or if the projector was not set up to screen it correctly. The photos on the site are all high resolution so am hoping the release of the film will be in a better presented format.
Another character in this film that really stands out is the amazing music - it is so beach scene it worked a treat. And I did not know one single band or artist and the film makers instead used all relative unknowns. There are songs by Dan Flynn, Matt Walters, Dash and Will, Big Scary, Tom Richardson, Justin Carter, Ghost Mutt, The Smoke, Dardanelles, Liz Cogger, Seth Sentry and HEAPS MORE - CLICKETY CLICK RIGHT HERE FOR THE MUSIC PAGE OF THE FILM FOR LINKS TO ALL THEIR MYSPACE PAGES. The soundtrack will soon be out on Itunes. Worth the buy!
The film is premiering on Valentines Day - a perfect release date for this title - it will then be in limited cinemas from Wed Feb 23rd. It's quite short and worth the viewing. And if you can't work out all the sponsors for the film you are blind - lots of product placement.
First Love The Film - Trailer from First Love on Vimeo.
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Comment by Mountain Fog
Infognito
Screen Trek
QUOTE ME NO QUOTES!
there is an embargo request on this, nothing to be posted before the opening on Valentines Day.
The invitations clearly stated this request, and I have adhered to that request, (I have seen it).
I am just being a good neighbour, as the last time someone did this, to Paramount, they got the door slammed on them from then on.
cheers
fog
Comment by Jason King
Sydney Table
Salty Popcorn
Total Randomness
Comment by AmyHuang
Project Job Search
Travel Debate
Travel String
Love Adventures
Wow this whole review thing sounds pretty serious - how you have to get invites and everything.
Comment by Jason King
Sydney Table
Salty Popcorn
Total Randomness
But fair enough - like he said if it was something like Lord of the Rings 4 or Star Trek 2 it would be pretty serious.
This film is playing art house and I will be posting all the locations when the distributor sends me the details - 16 screens in Australia it will play at. It is only an hour long and a docco - a good one none the less but it will not be a huge mega drawcard like Avatar