It was two weeks ago when we premiered Out Of Place at the New York Surf Film Festival and pulled off the honor of winning the Viewers Choice for Best Movie.  I am still settling down from the entire experience.   It was pure bonkers.  Here goes my attempt to adequately cover the weekend.

Vince Labbe, the star of OOP, arrived at my apartment on Thursday with Chris Mcintosh, PR guru, his girl Nikki, and Kev Dog, our good dude.  It was great seeing some of the Cleveland crew that I befriended during the film’s production in NYC for its premiere.  We spent Thursday plastering posters all over town.  It was a lot of fun and great to see the poster in the wild. It began to set in that we were about to show the movie for the first time.  That night Vince, Irene, and I went to the rooftop BBQ for filmmakers in Brooklyn where we enjoyed the view of Manhattan, mingled with lots of cool people, and ran into Ted Endo, a writer covering the festival for the New York Times.  Ted happened to grow up a block away from me in Columbus, Ohio.  I hadn’t seen him since high school. Pretty far out.  We met Tyler Breur, a co-founder of the festival.  He’s one of those rare people that make you feel good just by being around them.  This dude is pure aloha.  As I understand it, Tyler and Morgan Burke were the ones who first started talking about putting on a surf film festival.  Once they got Michael Machemer and Adam R in the mix, the New York Surf Film Festival was born.

Friday was the first day of the festival.  Vince and I showed up at the Tribeca Cinemas ready to glad hand and talk story at the press meet and greet.   The cinema is beautiful and has a serious bar with a loft where various DJ’s spun music all weekend.   Vince and I ate way too many Kind Bars and drank too much Vita Coco water (both official sponsors and in moderation, healthy and delicious).  We were a bit shy in the beginning, but got over that pretty quickly and met just about everyone in attendance.  I met Joe from Drift Magazine.  Turns out I have been following Joe’s blog, the Pine Cone Haven, for a while and talked about it without knowing it was his. I love when stuff like that happens. Needless to say we are going to be doing an Out Of Place screening in Portland. Very good people.  We checked out the excellent Last Hope, directed by Aussie Andrew Kidman who played with his band adding a live soundtrack. Richard Kenvin’s section of the film about the conversion of Wind an Sea’s parking lot, a nexus of california surfing history, into a yuppie dog park was my favorite.

Saturday was spent hanging out at the cinemas meeting more people and checking out movies.  We watched Whitewash and had a great time with the filmmakers Ted and Arrion.  The film is about the history of blacks in surfing.  It is an interesting look into the reasons why you do not come across many black surfers in the lineup.   Arrion, the producer is a Cleveland native.  At the bar I overheard a woman saying she especially enjoyed previewing Out Of Place.   I introduced myself and she turned out to be none other than Cynthia Rowley, an incredible fashion designer and Michigan native. Saturday was great because Scott arrived in NYC with his wife Jen, father Glenn, Tom Heinrich, and Darrin Mcdonald.  Open bar. Enough said.

Sunday was the big day.  Scott and I were full of nervous energy.  I don’t think he ate a thing all day.  This was the moment we had been working for years to get to. Now what? We couldn’t do anything.  The film was finished and loaded to project. The movie played to a crowded theatre. And it worked. It actually played without a hitch and it was great.  People laughed.  People hooted. It was a dream come true to be sharing my work with family, friends, and strangers.   I think I held Irene’s hand the entire movie, tightly.  Tense until the movie’s credits finished scrolling across the screen.  It was perfect.  That night at the awards ceremony/party we won the award.  The room went crazy.  We have fans!  I moved to NYC this past summer and to win the award here means a lot.  It is a great welcome to my new home and to the local scene.   The viewer’s choice. Every time I think about it I smile.  People enjoyed the movie!

The New York Surf Film Festival is the product of hard work by passionate people.  It was the perfect place to show Out Of Place for the first time.  We are lucky to have been a part of it.

What’s next? We are trying to figure that out.   We want as many people to see the movie as possible.  We are currently submitting to festivals all over and setting up screenings.  Also, beginning early talks with distributors. Let us know if you want to help.

Photos from Morgan Rae Berk’s Facebook courtesy of Jake McBride

By Kurt on 10/13/09