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The Ride — OPENING NIGHT
93 min., 2003, Hawai`i (USA)
Director: Nathan Kurosawa.
This sumptuous and detailed
narrative film elegantly interweaves present day Hawai`i
and the bygone era of early 20th century O`ahu. Through
the eyes
of 21-year-old professional surfer David Monroe, the audience is lead through
a time-travel window into the Golden Era of Waikiki and an up-close and
personal relationship with Hawai`i's Ambassador of Surfing
and Aloha, the great Duke
Paoa Kahanamoku. A quirky and unexplainable surfing mishap lands the spoiled,
pampered, and unappreciative modern-day surfing star David Monroe in the
Waikiki of 1911. This event becomes a narrative device for the film to
address spiritual changes that have invaded modern surfing
and, more important, present-day
society as a whole. The experiences gained by the brash haole surfer David
from his life-saving rescue by the Duke and his Waikiki buddies comprise
a symbolic journey of transformation and redemption for the unwitting 21st
century protagonist. The Ride sets itself apart as an indie production
through its surprisingly deft touch with historical fiction,
its attention to details
of Hawaiian dress, architecture, and speech, and especially to its recreation
of the life of Kahanamoku, one of surfing's-and Hawai`i's-greatest legends.
The Ride played this past year in Hawai`i as a local crowd favorite, including
a phenomenal outdoor screening of 15,000 people at Sunset on the Beach
in Waikiki. Q&A to follow with filmmaker |
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