Three women in competitive mountain biking examine their relationships with falling, both on and off the course.
“Assorted Rides” is comprised of a few sessions in California where I met up with a surfer I’ve really enjoyed watching over the years. Devon Howard’s approach to surfing inspired the feel of this short—a modern classic. In preparation for this project, I pored over old surf photograpahy books with works by guys like LeRoy Grannis and Ron Stoner. They are photographers that captured moments and told stories through the use of dramatic backlighting and color accents compressed through a manual focus telephoto lens that—when complimented by the grain of film—produced a timeless image. My hope is the short film does two things: 1.) Makes you want to go surfing right now! 2.) To record a moment in time which represents what I think is Devon’s best surfing to date, at age 46 no less.
Going into the final event of the surf season, Americans held the three top spots in women’s world championship standings. But only two of them can qualify for the Olympic Games in Tokyo, where the sport is making its Olympic debut.
This Newsy documentary follows Carissa Moore, Lakey Peterson and Caroline Marks as they compete for Olympic berths — a drama-filled race to Tokyo that touches on the ascendance of the sport, the fight for gender equality and the joys, as well as the pressures of being the best surfers in the world.