While the CT takes a break from the action at Burleigh Heads with small surf forecast until at least Thursday, there’s no better time to check out the Flotsam Surf Film and Photography Festival that is currently running on the Gold Coast until 14 May.
The celebration was born out of a desire to showcase the creative side of the surf industry which took a big hit during the Covid-19 pandemic as border controls and rules on how much time you could spend outside left photographers and filmmakers severely restricted. The event features an eclectic mix of pop up short film installations, photography exhibitions, movie screenings, workshops and interactive discussions.
This evening (7 May) you can catch the premiere of the Women and the Wind at Mo’s Desert Clubhouse from 6pm. The film sees a group of women sail across the North Atlantic on Mara Noka – a 50-year-old catamaran.
On Thursday the festival will be hosting the ‘Surf Girls on Film’ night which features a number of women’s surf film screenings and a panel discussion at the Balter Brewery Tap Room from 6pm.
The panel will be led by Pacha Light who will be presenting her recent project ‘Ceibo’, which was filmed by Maddie Meddings and produced alongside Lucy Small.
Pacha and Lucy journey across Ecuador to learn from women how we can better coexist with our planet. From the land rights struggles of the Andes and the Amazon, to an Olympic surfer who has carved out a path for women, to the fight to protect the waters of the Galapagos Islands, Ceibo explores some of the most important struggles of our time. Along the way, Pacha untangles her own evolving identity as she reconnects with her Ecuadorian roots and embraces what it means to be Ecuadorian.
There will also be a showing of the new film Harmony by Shannah Hayes, which features Northern Beaches charger Anne Dos Santos as she journeys on a sail boat through the remote pacific.
As well as screenings of True Love starring Claire Vandermeiren and Jaleesa Vincent’s most recent project ‘Pussy Palace’, which is an ode to her band ‘Pussy Surfboards’.
Jaleesa started shaping her own boards alongside her housemate at the time Ellis Ericson. While Ellis has been sculpting foam for the last decade, Jaleesa concedes she hadn’t thought too deeply about design in the past. “Before I moved into the house with Ellis, I’d never, like, even considered what a concave was. So that’s been a big change in my surfing lately, not necessarily like ripping more or anything, but just like appreciating, like feeling it, like a whole experience of surfing, from getting the blank to shaping it, to getting to spray it to glassing it.”
The festival also coincides with next stop on the Tracks Party Tour as we hit the dancefloor on 9 May at the Coolangatta Hotel. Rum Jungle will headline the night and they’ll be supported by Letter to Lion, Headsend and Mid Drift. Purchase tickets here.
To check out more of what’s on offer at the Flotsam Festival in the coming days, click here.
