The Cucalorus Festival and the Dare County Arts Council wrapped the 6th annual Surfalorus Film Festival on Saturday night, breaking attendance records for the event while celebrating an incredible three days of epic surf at the Easterns. The festival’s opening night was standing room only at Jennette’s pier for local high school student Logan Marshall’s directorial debut Limitless. Marshall, who was inspired to make the film just so that it could screen at Surfalorus, reported to the crowd that he’s already working on his next film and hopes to have it ready for next year’s fest. Rory Kennedy’s biopic about the legendary Laird Hamilton capped out the opening night festivities.
Chris Hannant and Russ Roe, Surfalorus film fest regulars, both had shorts in the lineup on Friday night for another standing-room only event in Downtown Manteo. Wrightsville Beach native Luke Marshall had his festival debut with his documentary about Indo Jax Surf Charities. Keith Malloy’s Fish People finished the evening with an incredible snapshot of six inspiring water warriors who have dedicated their lives to the sea.
Saturday nights closing event included Chris Burkard’s inspiring doc Under an Arctic Sky and featured a ‘half-time’ performance by local fire juggler Panda Daniels. The traditional poi performance was a perfect metaphor for festival’s fiery emergence as a major event on the Outer Banks social calendar.
According to Surfalorus curator Dan Brawley: “The third year is always special for an event like this – it takes a few years to build momentum and we could tell as we drove up from Wilmington that this year was going to be special. I think it is fair to say that Surfalorus has found a permanent home on the Outer Banks, thanks to Chris Sawin and Tatum Clements and the core crew of salty surfers who come out every year to celebrate the intersection between filmmaking and riding waves. We’re stoked about all the possibilities that lie ahead. We’ll be building our relationship with ESA and the Easterns as well so that the stoke builds every year.”
Anyone who didn’t get enough tasty cinema at Surfalorus, the Cucalorus Film Festival is just six weeks away and promises more than 300 films spread out over five days in downtown Wilmington. More info at www.cucalorus.org.