Last year, husband and wife team, Michael and Delphine Foo-Matkin brought the first Santa Cruz Surf Film Festival to life in epic fashion, presenting over a dozen international and domestically produced surf movies over a two-day period at the Rio Theatre. This year, the Santa Cruz Surf Film Festival is back in full force with an intense three-day lineup of breathtaking surf movies shot from around the globe. Get ready to light your stoke torch.
Sifting through hundreds of submissions to select their final 16 films, four full-length and 12 shorts, Delphine and Michael aimed to showcase compelling stories with spectacular imagery.
“We try to include stuff that’s been made in the last few years, things that people haven’t seen before. We also try to find films that go beyond just surfing; they need to tell a story along with having beautiful shots,” says Delphine.
Each day of the festival will include one full length feature film and a selection of shorts, bringing tales of a variety of subjects, from aging Aussie surf champions and ice surfing in South Korea to a 14-year-old surfboard craftsman, to the big screen.
So you guys aren’t actually from Santa Cruz, or even California for the matter. How did you end up here?
MICHAEL AND DELPHINE: We moved here for the surfing. We both lived in New York for a long time. We surfed there but it was just bad. You’re waiting for storms all the time and you can go a month without any waves, so we quit our jobs, sold everything, and traveled the world to surf and also look for a place to live that had great waves.
What made you want to settle in Santa Cruz after traveling to so many great places?
MICHAEL AND DELPHINE: We knew we wanted to live somewhere with consistent waves, but we met so many people from Santa Cruz or who had been there during their travels, and kept saying how great the town was, so we decided we had to check it out. It was between here and San Diego’s north county. We feel we’ve made the right call.
So what made you want to start a surf film festival? Was it an idea you had before you moved here?
MICHAEL AND DELPHINE: It wasn’t an idea until after we got here. We were actually looking for one to go to since we assumed there would be one. There was one where we lived in New York. So when we realized there wasn’t one, we decided to start one! We didn’t have a clue how to do it in the beginning, but it all fell into place.
Is there any film or aspect of the event in particular that you guys are stoked about this year?
MICHAEL AND DELPHINE: We are definitely excited to see more community involvement, especially since last year we didn’t get that many submissions from local filmmakers, so we’re super excited to feature a great movie this year by local filmmaker, Kyle Buthman that focuses on local surfer Anthony Tashnick.
Info: Friday, Oct. 2 – Sunday, Oct. 4. The Rio Theatre. Santa Cruz Surf Film Festival. Tickets: $40 for a 3-day festival pass. Pictured: Image from The Pacific Wayfarer.
