New surf movie – Sliding Liberia

Surfer sind keine Nichtsnutze, die nur an die nächste Welle denken, am Strand abhängen und nichts tun. Ganz im Gegensatz. Viele Surfer heutzutage haben Organisationen gegründet, die sich den Schutz unserer Ozeane und der Natur zum Ziel gesetzt haben. Branchenriesen wie Billabong versuchen ihre Produkte umweltfreundlicher herzustellen.

Auch einzelne Surfer verbessern das Surferimage. Dan Malloy produzierte 2007 einen Film, in dem es nicht nur ums Surfen geht, sondern um die Darstellung einer fremden Kultur: „Sliding Liberia“. Dan war im vergangenen Sommer mit einigen Kollegen in Liberia und stellt in professioneller dokumentarischer Manier die Situation der Menschen in dem westafrikanischen Staat dar, untermalt von Surfbildern von leeren Pointbreaks, die er sich mit seinen Freunden und einem afrikanischen Bodyboarder teilt. Ich habe “Sliding Liberia“ im Open-Air Kino von Bondi am 14. März gesehen und kann den Film nur weiterempfehlen. Dan Malloy hielt vor der Premiere in seiner bescheidenen Art eine kurze Ansprache über die Situation und seine persönliche Erfahrung in Liberia. Dan hatte folgendes über den Film zu sagen:

„Last summer I had a very rare travel opportunity. My cousin Britton has been attending Stanford studying film. There he became good friends with a guy named Nicholia Lidow, a political science major who has focused his studies on the development of nations that are currently experiencing civil war or just very recently experienced a civil war. What that means, in short, is that Nicholia has been spending all of his free time in Liberia. Although Nicholia is very serious about his major and is actively working and studying at all times, he also happens to be a good surfer, and Liberia also happens to have amazing surf. Very few people have ever surfed the Liberian coastline. With development in Liberia halted by the vicious rule of Charles Taylor, the country has been in the midst of a gruesome civil war for the last 20 years. Under intense pressure on all fronts, Charles Taylor finally resigned. Upon his resignation, the United Nations agreed to occupy Liberia with a plan to reestablish peace. The Liberian people elected Ellen Johnson Sirleaf as their new leader and the U.N. quickly began purchasing guns from Liberian citizens to get them off the street. Peace came almost overnight. The bombs stopped, the gunshots stopped, the fear of war was finally behind them. The war is over, but Liberia remains one of the poorest nations on the planet. Getting killed is now a worry of the past. The struggle now for the Liberian people, with a completely obliterated system, is to stay alive. With the war over, Nicholia invited a few of us to experience Liberia with him and his local Liberian friends. He took us on a three week journey that I will never forget. When we arrived there was only one Liberian surfer named Alfred. Now it looks like there are three.“
(source: www.cleanestline.com)

Hier ist der Trailer zum Film:

Die offiizielle Homepage: Sliding Liberia

>> OCEANS7 HOMEPAGE