Brother's Watching
There were three things going on Friday at the Civic. First, the audience, whose median age was about 17 and who were tan, mostly blond, clear-eyed, and radiated health in thick pulses you could almost hear. Few of them smoked cigarettes or wore glasses, and all exhibited a sense of exhilarated urgency and impatience while waiting for the movie to begin. Second, the surfers in the film, who were recognized instantly by the audience and wildly cheered as they engaged in gleaming duels of fleeting, awesome beauty. And third, the attitude of the movie, elaborately created by for this night, this audience, by two guys who presume that the film will only be shown to surf freaks but who spent thousands of extra dollars so the sound would wipe everyone out completely. They didn’t have to, but they’re “hot,” so they got fancy. “Hot” is surfer for “great.”—Eve Babitz on the 1972 premiere of Five Summer Stories from Eve’s Hollywood.
We’ve been talking about surf movies a lot lately and I’d say that’s a good thing. This week, the yin to Trilogy: New Wave’s yang was released: Kolohe Andino’s 2 Percent film “Hijinx.” It is a very different film than Trilogy. In fact, it is different in every way except for the fact they both include the act of surfing.
For one: Hijinx is free on YouTube, so you can watch it here right now for no dollars — you just have to stomach some pharmaceutical YouTube ads. Trilogy: New Wave is available for rent or purchase here. No ads unless you count the outdated Billabong one.
The premiere tours around Hijinx went to Japan, Australia and the East and West Coast of the US. They were absurdly raw and reckless. There were no panels to discuss the filmmaking after and in some cases I’m surprised they managed to even get the film from projector to screen before it was drenched in beer and sweat — but there were bands and mosh pits and the after parties were usually at someone in attendance’s out-of-town parent’s house. And they had Vs Self (one of our favorite bands right now) play the San Clemente premiere. The b-roll for Hijinx is made up of butt crack jokes and boardbag sleepyheads.
The edit itself is straight forward nostalgia: tunes and surfing and a bunch of fresh faces — compiled by the inimitable Michael Cukr — who brought an invisible energy and style to the movie that makes you think 2 Percent is a long lost early aughts skate brand. Think damaged rental cars full of sand, chip wrappers and exploded Del Scorcho packets. Like a 917 or Hockey vid in flip flops. Something I think surfing could use more of if we’re voicing our opinion. It’s a bunch of dudes who are friends (more or less) ripping and hopefully selling you a 2 Percent hoodie and showing you how they surf. End of marketing story.
I spent last Sunday with Kolohe — we are old pals and our kids are the same age. At one point his YouTube app came up on screen during a commercial of the Rams game we were watching and he saw the view count for Hijinx. 11k. “What a stupid amoun that is.” he said. He didn’t say it bitterly, but just an observation about how silly and arbitrary that highly visible number that is used to dictate your value and quality and engagement with our society, even though its derived from an algorithm that compiles your darkest intuitions and spits out propaganda and decides where your vid should be seen or not seen. And God forbid you rebel and refuse to follow the (recently leaked) Mr. Beast Guidebook to making YouTube vids “the right way.” Yeah, we’re that screwed. Anyway, Kolohe didn’t follow those guidelines and still managed to deliver something cool to at least 11k of you. All of these factors are side effects of the modern condition [shoulder shrug]. 11k views. Bleh. Hawk-Tuah. Hopefully a few of the views are you and you liked it at least as much as Trilogy: New Wave.
In the film you get to discover Hayden Rodgers, Vs. Self, Ice Spice and a few other San Clemente groms who will either go work at Lost or breakout and become the next Chris Ward. Both fair options. You also get to see style master and Wave-Ki disciple Taro Watanabe surf a long right point with Kolohe, which is super nice. It is not rocket science and I dunno if more than 11k views is needed or not, but I wanted to make sure you saw it if you haven’t already.—Travis Ferré
[Above image: Bruce Conner’s film Crossroads screened at the Thomas Dane Gallery]
