Stuart Nettle June 18, 2009

There is a dilemna with watching surfing movies that arises after a certain age. Usually mid-20's when one-dimensional rip-n-tear videos lose their allure and you start to demand more from movies.

The dilemna being: rather than having a broader range to choose from the options become limited.

When artistic sensibilities begin to refine, the 'formula of the individual' emerges and specific tastes replace broad appeal. This applies for the moviemakers as well as the audience. The result being a frequent disconnect between film-maker and viewer.

As a keen movie viewer myself, many a time I have watched a surf movie and found myself at odds with the film-makers 'idea' of surfing, or their devotion to a particular craft, or just their method of constructing images on my screen.

All well and good,  it's a free world and it takes all kinds to make it up. And it is their movie after all. However, it's my time and money. Also, while it gladdens me to see variety in the world it comforts me to see things that sings to my heart.

And that's why Last Hope works so well as a concept. To call it a film would be a misnomer, because it is actually sixteen short films (actually, short films may also be stretching it as they are largely devoid of dialogue and present more as film clips). Yet within these films there is bound to be something that appeals to your taste or sensitivities.

Although they fall broadly within a style I can best describe as Kidmanesque (you know you've made it when you get a genre named after you), there is enough variety to please a wide audience

Last Hope is the idea of Andrew Kidman, who needs no introduction to a surfing audience, and Aaron Curnow, who perhaps does. Curnow is the owner of Spunk Records and has on his playlist bands such as Bonnie Prince Billy, Sufjan Stevens, Dirty Three, Explosions In The Sky, Mogwai and Holly Throsby.

In Last Hope the music of these bands (and more) is divvied out to seven noted film-makers to create short films.

Albert Falzon reprises scenes from Morning Of The Earth to the music of Bonnie Prince Billy, Richard Kenvin mourns the loss of Windansea car park to music from Smog, and Jon Frank intersperses scratchy home film, replete with his kids playing in the local shoredump, with film from his 'real work', namely high-definition images of heaving South Pacific reef passes. That film is called Dad's Been Away Again and is, I believe, the high point in Last Hope.

There are many other great moments, however listing them here is pointless; each viewer will have their own. And that is the beauty of Last Hope.

Last Hope can be purchased here. (http://www.litmus.com.au/)

There will be an East Coast tour in July. We'll have details on Swellnet shortly.