Review: 'The Life And Death Of Westerly Windina'
A helluva lot has changed in the decade-plus since filming began on Alan White and Jamie Brisick's documentary The Life and Death of Westerly Windina. The fate, experience, and integration into society of transgender people has exploded from a niche issue into fuel for a full blown culture war.
That gives the documentary a certain air of innocence, to its credit, and enables it to focus on the particular life trajectory of one of surfings' most colourful, impactful, and tortured characters, Peter Drouyn/Westerly Windina.
From the beginning of the film, where Westerly Windina lays down a tidy shred session while wearing a bikini, right through the first half of the film which details the achievements of Peter Drouyn, one thing is obvious: Drouyn was and still is an incredible surfer.
His surfing, from his initial prime period in the late-sixties/early-seventies has aged beautifully. From traditional longboarding into the shortboard transition, the lines were strong and stylish. It still looks fantastic, maybe moreso when we compare it to, say, the pro era surfing that followed. Looked at with modern eyes all that ferocious eighties wiggling is nausea inducing. He was certainly the peer of Nat Young and Wayne Lynch who were considered to have rendered him obsolete.
Dare I say, it has even aged better than the legendary Michael Peterson who's arm chopping and “points for manouevres” surfing looks clunky with the passage of time. Modern surfing is completely evident in his approach, from powerful top to bottom surfing, to close-out re-entries, to roundhouse cutback into rebounds. A deep bottom turn to lip-line speed run at Sunset in the 1970 Duke contest looks incredibly radical. From a purely surf perspective, there's a surfeit of aesthetic pleasure to be gained from watching Drouyn's surfing get the accolades it deserves. It's a much needed historical corrective.
It's during this early part of the film that the darker undercurrents which were to run through Drouyn's life were introduced. Like the anti-hero Meursault in Camus' The Outsider these events seemed to represent a “slow persistent breeze” blowing from "the dark horizon of the future” for Peter.
A photograph of Drouyn as a child next to a catholic priest is accompanied by a story of sexual misadventure as an eleven-year old boy; one that led to Peter's mind being “destroyed a bit” and fear that the devil had taken him over, causing the boy to do all sorts of things to tear the “demon out of his mind”.
In Sydney for the 1965 Australian Titles, Drouyn was badly beaten until unconscious the day before competition and won the Junior title with a heavily bandaged and stitched face.
He stood out. Bugs calls him “ultra-flamboyant” and claimed to be “mesmerised by his presence and aura."
Drouyn competing at Manly in 1965 with bandages on his forehead (Peter Drouyn)
Why this violent reaction to him? Journalist Nick Carroll points a finger at the “framework of society in Southern Queensland which was at it's most ignorant” during Drouyn's formative years, and at its “pinnacle of rejecting vulnerability”. Director Jamie Brisick invokes the Australian Tall Poppy Syndrome as a way of explaining some of the animus Drouyn suffered.
Neither seem entirely plausible or with much in the way of explanatory power to me. The Gold Coast was a thriving, flamboyant, creative place in the early-seventies and Drouyn's equally flamboyant and high-achieving acolyte Rabbit Bartholomew did not suffer the same invective, becoming later in life a figure celebrated and recognised by the mainstream of Australian society.
Nor does the purely personal explanation offered in the film by surf administrator Paul Daley that Drouyn was an “arsehole” seem sufficient. It seems more likely some combination of personal and societal factors propelled by a peculiarly tragic fate was behind the Shakespearean trajectory. The demons and the dark winds blowing from the future.
The golden boy of Queensland surfing during his teens (Peter Drouyn)
The elegy, as lamented by Drouyn in later years was that he was hard done by, ripped off by the powers that be. The film shows clearly that there was, in fact, grist for that mill. Most notably in the 1977 World Title race. I had no idea he was running second to Shaun Tomson with one event remaining on the calendar, the Duke Kahanamoku Hawaiian Surfing Classic. One event away from becoming World Champion at a wave he was a master at. It was an invitational event, and Drouyn was not invited. He was barred from competing in the final event of the year which decided the World Title.
According to Bartholomew, “that took his heart and soul away”. Of course it would. Imagine getting shafted to that degree.
The high points of the Drouyn resume still far outweigh the downsides. No-one before or since has had a vision of surfing as spectacle and sport like Drouyn. His man-on-man concept, debuted at the 1977 Stubbies could still easily be argued as the high point of pro surfing. Rarely equalled in impact, never bettered. It was huge. Wherever pro surfing has cleaved to the Drouyn vision - by intent or pure chance - of a gladiatorial contest of high stakes it has thrived.
Beaming at the 1977 Stubbies where he unveiled man-on-man surfing
His concept of a Super Challenge with Mark Richards in 1984, where different styles of boards and locations would be utilised to crown a champion remains buried in the tundra of recent history, like a frozen mastodon waiting to be revived by a modern promoter with balls and backing. Imagine, for modern context, JJF and Medina going man-on-man through a two-week super challenge in Indonesia. Drouyn's poetic and hardcore vision has always been superior to the American sickly sweet corporate pap served up in search of the mythical middle-American audience.
That's the first half of the film. The second charts the course of Peter Drouyn becoming Westerly Windina, a process that Bartholomew, speaking on behalf of Drouyn's peers called “surreal and difficult to come to grips with”. Doubly so, because Drouyn, not to put too fine a point on it, was an absolute stud as young man. Drouyn went through women, in the words of Westerly Windina, “like ice cream sundaes on a summer's day in the Sahara desert."
So, what happened? What makes a sixty-year old man decide to become a woman?
The answers are inconclusive and mysterious. Windina at the beginning of the film offers the medical response of “gender dysphoria” which is the dissonance between an inner experience and the physical sexed body. Later in the film Windina describes a type of epiphany, a bolt from the blue whereafter she began dressing and living as a woman.
Where had Peter Drouyn gone?
“I don't know Peter,” Windina claimed. “He's gone away forever."
Regardless of the reasons why, there's no doubt the 'how' of becoming a woman is an incredibly perilous and arduous journey. We are guided through some of the milestones by transgender actress Danielle Alexis. Hormone therapies which disrupt and reverse physical characteristics, psychological and psychiatric appointments, the trials and tribulations of dealing with family and societal rejection, the final gender reassignment surgery are all detailed.
This makes the opening surf scene with Windina even more impressive. Some of the scenes in Bangkok where Windina has gone to get reassignment surgery and at one stage admits they “feel like getting a knife and cutting it off” are excruciating. “What courage,” remarks Shaun Tomson with respect to this journey.
There are suggestions by peers that this is all attention seeking behaviour from Drouyn. Nick Carroll calls it the “greatest performance of his life”. The film clearly shows a thrill for Westerly Windina from the transgressive aspects of becoming a woman.
When all the big dreams that Drouyn attempted to bring to reality turned to dust there wasn't much leftover. He should have ended up in some “exalted place” according to Bugs but drove cabs in Surfers Paradise instead. Dealing with drunks and puke instead of adulation and riches. The reason for the failures, observes Bartholomew, was "an inability to work with others.”
This implied accusation of pathological narcissism hangs over the second half of the film but seems strongly refuted by Windina's efforts to manage her transition to maintain relationships with her brother and son. The only people she has left in the world. The most heartbreaking moments of the film occur when, after arriving back from Thailand sans the bits between the legs, she is rejected by her brother who claims, “I can't stomach it. I'll never be OK with it, it's ghastly” while Windina stands forlorn on the street.
“He's still my brother,” is all she can manage by way of consolation.
I had a small involvement with the film at this stage. Shooting a minor amount of B-roll footage of Windina as she prepared for her grand unveiling at a surfing awards ceremony in Sydney. The scenes were incongruous and confounding. The gritty, low res inland suburbs seemed depressing and not at all where an ageing surf star turned trans woman would end up. But Windina, just post surgery, claimed she was a “butterfly who had been set free."
I sensed an individual still flitting across multiple planes of reality. These impressions remain after watching the film, although leavened by a greater appreciation for the strength of character shown by the film's protagonist. Despite the snubbing by the awards ceremony itself, the night was a triumph for Windina in terms of the acceptance she was shown by the surfing community. She was welcomed back into the fold like the Biblical prodigal son after wandering in the wilderness.
As mentioned at the beginning, the cultural landscape has convulsed in seismic fashion as trans issues have become ammunition in the culture wars. Surfing has not been immune. Rip Curl found itself in a social media shitstorm as a marketing campaign involving Sasha Jane Lowerson was firebombed leading to a boycott campaign.
Drouyn was too old to become enmeshed in questions involving competitive surfing by the time he became Windina.
But there will be another Drouyn - another champion surfer born male who wishes to become a woman, this time in their prime. All the questions of fairness and inclusion will have to be resolved. I don't pretend to have any answers and nor does the film. But they do hang heavy in the air after watching.
The final scenes of the film, a kind of coda to the main story are incredibly moving and poignant. I can't, for the sake of those yet to watch the film, spoil them. They are implied in the title of the film.
These scenes speak to the endless human capacity for renewal, for delusion, for compassion, for forging a peaceful end from a life marked by internal torment.
The Life and Death of Westerly Windina is not a surf film. It transcends that barrier. I hope surfers go see it and it finds the wider audience it deserves. It illuminates much about an issue which is currently consumed by a fire of ignorance.
//STEVE SHEARER
'The Life And Death Of Westerly Windina' is playing at Byron Bay Film Festival
Comments
Great review.
Lovely writing.
+1.
A little off track, but I am glad to read someone describe Michael Peterson's surfing the way I see it.
I second that - writing from Freeride76 is outstanding
+3
Brilliant article.
+ 4, could read stuff like that all day Steve.
+5, fantastic work Steve.
magnificent article. some things are larger than life, some lives are five lives in one.
Agree with that man.
Steve. Hi.
That preamble was very interesting. AW
Great review, complex individual.
Cool review, I'll give it a watch when it becomes available.
Thanks for the complexity and nuance, Steve. Such empathy is so important to so many.
Hear, hear
Oi Oi freeride76.
I'd love to know how Shaun Tomson felt winning a word title in that fashion. It would take the shine off it for me. I just heard a story about Jessie Owens getting fouled repeatedly in the long jump final, against a German, at Hitler's Olympics. The German said to Owens they should both jump well back from the line so it will be impossible to foul him. Owens won, they spent the night talking in the village and remained life long friends. Winning because the second best guy doesn't get invited is not really winning.
World title.
Shaun’s needs an asterix against it, and Peter potentially deserves a shared title with an asterix also. He was robbed, that’s a terrible piece of history I’d never known about.
I wonder what the points differential leading up to it was, how many heats behind he was
That story about Jesse Owens kinda reminds me of the olympics when the Australian Cecil Healy called out to the organisers that the American team who missed the final by accident should be allowed to compete, his appeal was upheld and he was beaten by the great Duke Kahanamoku it’s a fantastic story of sportsmanship. Sadly Cecil died a few years later in France during WW1 . What a true Aussie he was.
An excellent summation of a complex and brave character. Will hopefully find a broad minded audience.
Thanks Steve for such a thoughtful eulegy of a complex character.
Western kulcha has alot of jokes, intollerance & excused violence, based on social or religious taboos, based on some ancient 'moral' codes of conduct; to preserve a society that may exist in an ideal world in the white clouds of heavens.
Samoan culture in some ways are way ahead of the west, acepting some people as "Faʻafafine"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fa%CA%BBafafine
If everyone can positively contribute to improving the world, it is a benefitial gift to society & evolution.
This guy saved England in WW2, invented the computer & the UK Govt forcably chemically castrated him.
He then killed himself. hypocrites can go to hell ?
Personally, I hope Elle McPherson has more children.
lovely observations as usual bbb,
heartening that here in swellnet world, people, so far,
couldn't give a rats if you pete, reet, petite, or get the westwinds up ya.
boring as fuck. specially, in surf terms, if you have cut top-shelf sick..
you are hall of fame, and can do whatever you want to do. And we'll go: cool.
and it will open up whatevers to whoevers that wouldn't have had whatever.
A biography of a fallen genius, unfortunately not homogeneous.
https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/homogeneous
Great review. Maybe "biblical prodigal daughter" though?
Looking forward to seeing it
Great review Steve.
A huge kudos should go to Alan and Jamie for making this film. Forget all the Trans Political BS, this is Peter's story. He's one of our elders and his story should be told. It was very brave of Alan and Jamie to take it on. Peter's story is like MP's. These stories are too difficult and complicated for a brand or commercial businesses to take on. In fact Westerly was dropped by a major international platform for distribution because it was 'just too difficult'.
I'm stoked for Alan and Jamie that the World Premiere tonight in Byron is sold out. This film deserves a much bigger stage. I hope that we get behind it.
There's another screening in Brisbane next week. Go see it, if just to recognise the deacade of work that Alan and Jamie put in. These are our stories. They are part of our history. https://biff.com.au/films-event-schedule/the-life-and-death-of-westerly-...
Want to see some footage of Peter in his prime? Go to The Surf Film Archive for some beautiful remastered mid and late 60s footage shot by Bob Evans - https://www.thesurffilmarchive.com.au
We are stoked that some of this remastered footage is in Westerly. This is why we do what we do at the archive, so that our stories can be shared for generations to come.
And want to see more beautifully remastered footage from the birth of surfing in Australia up on the Big Screen. We're on tour with You Should Have Been Here Yesterday.
Noosa tonight 6:30pm BCC Cinema. Maroochydore tomorrow 6:30pm.
Then down the coast over the next few weeks. Details here - https://www.thesurffilmarchive.com.au/yshbhy
This film was colour graded by the same guy who did the colour grading on Lord of the Rings. You will never see it looking so good! Hope to see you there.
Trailer -
Westerly Trailer here -
Eloquent
Wow. I don't know where to begin! I have always been extremely intrigued by the loner surfing personalities; the enigma's and those that isolate themselves from the tribe. I share these traits with them.
I have learnt so much recently about the gender world recently- my partner is a Gender Studies lecturer. I have always been left leaning, and yet I was horribly homophobic and close minded as a teenager in Cronulla. As far as I know, we all were. My parents certainly "had no time for those sorts of people". And now, the transgender issue takes us a further step in understanding and thinking beyond the Aussie obvious.
What stands out for me as I learn about this issue is how normal gender fluidity is amongst other cultures (someone else mentioned Samoan culture above). I am ashamed at my earlier ignorance and even hatred towards other sexualities and genders.
I once had a verbally violent exchange with someone on this website in regards to homophobia (a different issue, but the ignorance around binary sex and sexuality is linked), I suppose I was triggered by my own older behaviour, my current wish to see homophobia disappear and my want for the recipient of the comment to not see it or feel its sting.
I have a homosexual brother and a bi-sexual brother. I have two trans-women friends. Real friends. I am proud of my change in thinking and attitude. I am no less a heterosexual man.
I don't know what all this means, but I feel compelled to share my experiences. Much love.
Awesome Billie. I remember that exchange and FWIW you did a great job of pulling the dipshit down a few rungs. Respect for owning up to past prejudices, as I have had to over the years. Isn't it great when we can all grow and accept?
Thanks Surfalot67. I appreciate that. I want to write here for the record that the person I argued with here on Swellnet backed down and apologised. In retrospect I was way too aggressive but I was anxious to make change.
Hey yeah that was me, you rightfully called me out.
And offered to put the gloves on for 5 minutes too if I remember correctly!
Surfalot don’t get too excited mate if you actually read back through the exchange of words you weren’t exactly taking billies side. Just sayin’.
G'day Goofyfoot. Thanks for your response. I have been hoping for an opportunity for me to apologise. I hope my first comment gives some context to my anger. I'll see ya when it's six foot sometime mate!
Hey billie, no need to apologise. It was a good lesson.
Hope you’ve been getting a few mate.
Have you done the Wordle today mate? If not, you should!
Hahaha, too funny... my young fella got it in 2 & was stoked !
Ha!
Well said. A familiar arc put very honestly.
Really nice Billie. Props to you man. You only know that you have grown when you can look at your younger self with a certain sense of shame. I’ve been there, and going through more. There is learning ahead, always, or choose the path of abject ignorance.
As has been the common thread through this thread, "well said".
Guilty on many an occasion. Hopefully have grown beyond that ignorant twat I was and recognise my own previous prejudices.
It's a massive shift in society (and this small subset) that the film actually was made and well received here.
Thanks for a beautifully written article, Steve.
Westerly’s early life reminds me of the great Murray Rose. An Olympic champion who personified a healthy and vibrant young Australian, successful in sport and later a career in the media: he even had a part in Ride The Wild Surf. Westerly had everything Rose displayed and appeared to set for a successful career.
I cannot begin to understand the torment and distress people in Westerly’s situation go through. It clearly requires copious quantities of courage to cope with the attention it attracts. More recently champion AFL footballer Dani (Dean) Laidley, had to deal with the same issues.
I hope Westerly has many more waves to ride.
"I cannot begin to understand the torment and distress people in Westerly’s situation go through. It clearly requires copious quantities of courage to cope with the attention it attracts. More recently champion AFL footballer Dani (Dean) Laidley, had to deal with the same issues."
100% Salty. Danielle Laidley's book - Don't Look Away A Memoir of Identity & Acceptance is an incredible read on so many levels.
Thanks for the article FR. Would love to see the documentary.
He dropped in on me once as a grommet at small perfect Greenmount . with a few guys out,
It didn’t worry me though because he surfed the wave so well. ,and looked like he was having fun out there, despite the size .
And from memory he kept waving to his girlfriend watching, on the point,
And indicating just one more,
Just one more
etc !
And coincidentally he was living in Tasmania, the same time I was ,
and then in the Philippines at around the same time I was ,
although I could be wrong about that. ?
Thanks Steve, so heartening to read about this subject matter without all the dog whistling and faux outrage from the regressive anti "wOkE" mob. I last saw Peter at fund raising dinner in Burleigh for a surfing museum - not sure what ever happened to that. Was a super fun night with the usual suspects, Bugs, Greasy et all but the night ended with Peter walking in with a bleached-blond bob reminiscent of Andy Warhol. He gave an incredibly detailed speech around the change of the predominate swell direction over the years that have contributed to the GC points not being as good now as they were "back in the day". Don't know how much of it was true but bloody hell he sure believed in exactly what he was saying! An intense thinker...
I met westerly when she was Peter
48 years ago
Needed a new board and my fathers friend on the GC was friends with Peter Drouyn, so called him up
I went to his shop and he was so full of energy and generous, asked me about my surfing abilities Pulled out a lovely 6-2 winged pintail green rails and bottom and white deck
Eventually sold it when I bought an early energy thruster (pre Simon wining bells)
Thanks for the story Steve really timely as I just finished reading HoneyBee a great insight into the live of transgender youth
Look forward to the premiere at Brunz next week
Hopefully the culture wars around this issue will eventually die down and the people it affects can get on with their lives.
We are all different aren’t we
Loved drouyn in the hot generation. To be honest left Bob and nat behind style wise. Will never understand the situation. Look forward to the film. Drouyn’s early surfing will stand the test of time
One thing confuses me. The author talks of the open minded Gold Coast of the 70's, yet Peter was in Sydney in 1965 when he was assaulted. Anyone know the reason?
I remember in the early/mid 70's seeing a snippet on one of the ABC nightly news shows of his surfing at Uluwatu in "Drouyn and friends". Fantastic and no legrope.
One other thing, he must have been young when he started surfing Hawaii. Seem to remember another Bob Evans film called "Ride a white horse". Peter, Hawaii and from memory mainly longboards.
I look forward to catching the film.
Aaron, I watched Drouyn and friends in the mid seventies, from memory they surfed Mauritius and Angola where apparently they had to evade armed guerrillas as the Country was in civil war at the time (not mentioned in the film). The highlight of the film was that session at outside corner, I was blown away by how good he was surfing. I think that the master film has been lost and not sure if any copies still exist, so I haven’ been able to rewatch it. Would love to see that film again to see if that final session still looks as good as I thought it was.
I always remembered the white board with the circle logo from that session and having seen some snippets recently, yes, it still looks brilliant.
A real shame if the original is lost.
Cannot link due to security issues, but found about 4 mins in two parts on vimeo.
Some snippets recently found.
Peter and Uluwatu in '73.
Great write up FR. Nice word Billie. Times have changed.
Culture war's right. Times are changing like a slow moving train. I'm in North Carolina and over the last few weeks the anti-transgender ads being run on tv are atrocious. I can imagine these types of ads running in Australia years back, back not these days. I agree with free speech, but broadcasting this shite just inflames things.
Beautiful , beautiful writing Steve . Concise and strong . Staggering that Drouyn wasn't invited to compete in the final event in '77 despite being number 2 in the world .There's a big story right there ....
Not surprisingly he was also a pioneer in surf development cooperating with the Chinese government to promote the sport in China. He spent 2 weeks in Hainan in 1985 training a team of 20 kids, his aim was that of beating the Australians and Americans in world surf comps. The goal of the local government was different. They just wanted to promote surfing like they were successfully doing at that stage with windsurfing. That project was quickly sacked. Peter went through heavy culture shock. 10 days into the training and no one of the kids had stood up yet. I interviewed one of those 20 kids Wang Yongjian, that later became one of the leaders of the contemporary surf development project in China for my book Children of The Tide. Peter trip to Hainan also inspired the Surfer Mag trip in 1986. The amount of falsity, racism and superficiality that surf media showed talking about Drouyn experiment in China is staggering. Maybe I should collect my documents and write about it. For sure he was a visionary..
Racing car commentator liked x dressing.
Triple Brownlow medallist whose name doesnt get mentioned much had some exposure issues.
The list goes on...
I dont know why people get so wound up by others people harmless actions. Especially about sex. Think we all got here by fucking.
Who cares. Enjoy it!
Must say- Westerly scrubs up alright ;
“Like the anti-hero Meursault in Camus' The Outsider.”
Ok Steve, I’ll give a standing ovation to anyone who can fit a reference to Camus in a surfing journal, but the rest of it just adds layers.
Poignant and honest, I couldn’t imagine a better write up. Even more because, without wishing to sound too pompous, your ‘regional Australia’ voice makes me hope for more enlightenment for Australians on issues that don’t really affect them. Live and let live, eh.
Like bbbird, I have a homosexual brother, and someone else close to me that is going through ‘gender issues’, and all I can hope for is that I can show the necessary compassion when I need to.
Really soulful piece there FR.
From what I had gathered in past research; there were two halves of the brain; creative (right) & logical (left).
Some humans apparently can focus / favour / stimulate one side of the brain over the other due to a number of factors; society, culture, language, education, money honey, family upbringing, etc...
THE social norm is to fit in, not to stick out, unless you are exceptionally smart, good looking or wealthy. Most people could be shot down, locked up and/or beated by the cultural 'status quo'.
Alternative trans & gay characters I have met were from exposure to partying in big city; many seeking social connection & or anonymity from historic social persecution
(transexuals average 3% of the population) eg. Im using logic
P.S..My wonderful soul sister married and had 3 beautiful children.
Oztrailianze used inguinity exploring the " new "frontier"....
Very well written the extortionary sentiment had me captured for the whole piece thanks FR.
Geez FR your writing continues to go from strength to strength.
A great empathetic insight.
Interestingly listend to a podcast the other day with Bugs being interviewed by V.Blakey, talking about the 70's and 80's super battles, and i was waiting to hear Drouyns named mentioned, but not once did he mention it. (Not that i remember). Which i found surprising. Guessing he must have had his reasons, and i'm sure they weren't in any way callous, wouldn't be Rabbits style, but made me wonder why he was omitted from his retelling of the history of that era.
Agree on the surfing. I remember seeing footage many years ago and thinking Drouyn was one of the best.
The path he followed sounds like it was a spirit following their true path and all power to her. We can't give ourselves more than that in life.
Really great review. It has put it on my radar and makes me want to watch it.
I'm partial to an original human story!
Insightful review FR -Hope the film does well.
Excellent review. I might have missed it somewhere but was any reason/excuse given for the non-invitation to the 1977 Duke contest that could have seen Peter crowned as world champ?
Beautifully written FR, yes we are all different and a little acceptance goes a long way. Just watched the Netflix doco Will & Harper on the weekend. It covers similar issues and I found it profoundly moving. Highly recommend it and I look forward to watching this movie as well.
https://m.
Ye ha.
That's the sort of stuff I saw years ago. Hawaii, long boards and late 60's and then the short board surfing at Uluwatu in '73ish.
He was good.
Wonderfully written and compassionate. I have a question about "an inability to work with others.” Is this a reference to a psychological profile that prefers to work alone, or is it an ego or competitive implication?
Went to the '77 Stubbies contest which was an unbelivable show of what competitive surfing can achive if it's delivered in a man on man format! Peter foresight was unique & he deserves his place in surfing history as an innovator who put competitive surfing on the map!
new video just uploaded. Peter lots of wipeouts at Pipe but the last wave is brilliant. Such courage.
?si=mpzMAeRais2PoZo5That last wave is insane.
Note. All white dudes and an eventual white chick. No Hawaiians prolly making the tubes
Jackie Eberle looks Hawaiian
Musta been a strange vibe back then with Hawaii being one of the stop overs for troops heading to Vietnam and with Australias involvement and only just before the infamous Feb 68 TET Offensive. Wow
This is perverted
Saw the movie and Q&A with the filmmakers tonight
A great doco beautifully made and well deserved winner of the Byron bay film festival best movie
Highly recommend it
So much in it to unpack
I saw the movie in Bruns last night too, what an incredible story - so many complex layers over such a long lifespan. It was great to hear from Jamie and Alan afterwards, offering some personal insight into their own experiences throughout the 12 years they spent filming and editing.
It’s a bold move to be sure. It’s interesting the core of this person has always enjoyed attention and limelight. Sure, Peter has “gone” but, the desire to be seen is the same, maybe even greater. Not a criticism, it’s just human nature.
You Probably need to see the doco to get your answer that one Jock
Well it won both best film and best surf film at the Byron Bay Film Festival.
Not a bad start.
Wow. Beautifully sensitive writing Steve. Can’t wait to see the film.