Director, Lucy Small and her regular collaborator, Maddie Meddings, have cultivated their own compelling niche in surf films. It typically involves a heady mix of surf travel, political insight, women’s empowerment and dreamy imagery. The formula has proven effective, first with ‘Yama’ (which took us to Ghana) and now courtesy of their most recent release, ‘Ceibo’, a cinematic adventure through the wilds of Ecuador and its rustic surf towns.
‘Ceibo’ canvases a kaleidoscope of messages but begins as one woman’s search for an identity. Professional surfer Pacha Light spent the first few years of her life living off the grid in Ecuador – no electricity and Hummingbirds for alarm clocks. However, when she came to Australia as a toddler Pacha swapped the forest for the sea.
We learn that, despite a sense of lingering dislocation from her Ecuadorian origins, Pacha found solace in the Australian waves, eventually becoming a good enough surfer to compete at an elite level. However, despite her love for surfing Pacha still yearned for something beyond the world of heat sirens and contest scaffolding. Meanwhile, some of the questions about who she was and where she was from had to be answered.
Ceibo takes us on a journey back to Ecuador where Pacha (co-producer) visits her childhood home in Intag, meets relatives and reconnects with her Ecuadorian roots. We get a sense it’s a world far removed from her salty, Australian adolescence. Here the locals take their cues from the forest and the river as opposed to the sea.
Although Pacha has worked on her Spanish, it’s endearing to hear her discussing her early years in Ecuador in an Australian accent.
In the Andes region of Intag, Pacha reunites with a childhood friend, Muyu Flores who is busy fighting to protect the biodiverse, forest setting where she grew up alongside Pacha. 30 000 hectares of the area is under threat from mining interests and Lucy Small’s narrative voice pulls no punches when it explicitly points the finger at Gina Reinhardt’s Hancock’s Prospecting and its subsidiary companies for being responsible for much of the destruction in the area where Pacha grew up. Although we get lost in the jungle scenery, we must also swallow the bitter pill that it’s a fellow Australian who is behind the unscrupulous mining operations that may destroy it.
Although Pacha and Lucy are the travellers through whom we live vicariously, it’s the other women in the film, like Muyu, who emerge as the underground heroes; articulate and brave figures fighting nobly against powerful forces.
The film follows a more conventional surfing trajectory when the crew travel to Montanita, on the coast, to meet the queen of Ecuadorian surfing, Mimi Barona.
As one might expect the surfing action is dialled up and between Pacha, Mimi and Lucy’s longboarding there is welcome mix of ripping and trimming in waves that look appealing for most surfers. It’s worth remembering that Maddie is doing all the filming – surfing, interviews and lifestyle. A tough gig but there is a seamless continuity to the edit, perhaps aided by the fact one filmer shot all of it. Another standout feature of the film is the soundtrack, which boasts local beats and rhythms, amplifying the notion you are being transported to another place.
An engaging figure in and out of the water, Mimi’s trajectory to pro surfing stardom is a tale of relentless self-belief, family backing and community support. She also speaks openly about the tragic loss of her brother, Israel, a talented surfer who suffered a heart attack and died while competing in El Salvador.
Moving away from the coast again, a visit to the Napo region of the Amazon, puts us under the spell of the rainforest and the river, around which life still evolves for the local communities. The scenery lulls into the enchantment of the Amazon setting and then whacks us with the important but uncomfortable message about the impact of gold mining, which is responsible for certain areas of the fabled river being officially declared dead. Ceibo lets us enjoy the romance of adventure travel but doesn’t let us off the hook when it comes to the hard truths about environmental threats. The underlying theme is to make us fall in love with the natural beauty of a place so that we feel inspired to fight for its preservation.
From a visual and surfing perspective the segment set in San Cristobal, in the Galapagos Islands, is arguably the film’s highlight. Famed as the location which inspired much of Charles Darwin’s work, the Galapagos erupts with life-forms in and out of the water – there’s also some fun looking waves.
The crew snorkel with Galapagos sharks and myriad other species; dodge Iguanas and sea lions and surf a rolling lefthand point in pristine water. National Park guide, Carolina Pesantez sails Pacha and Lucy around the island, tipping them into some of the island’s most unique natural treasures. By the end of the section, you’re ready to book a trip to the Galapagos. However, once again we are reminded that even a protected wonderland like the Galapagos faces threats from illegal fishing by domestic and foreign ships.
Ceibo successfully uses the splendour of surfing and nature imagery as a gateway to better understanding a host of environmental and social issues. While the film doesn’t provide neat answers to the problems it raises, it does shift the surfing consciousness, encouraging us to become more curious and responsible travellers who engage with locals and cultivate an appreciation for the social and environmental challenges they face. Go see Ceibo, for sweet dose of entertainment, education and empowerment all at once.
See below for the remaining Aus tour dates:
16 April – Bells Beach Brewing, Torquay,VIC
19 April – The Riverside Club, Denmark, WA
23 April – Luna on SX, Freemantle, WA
