Given

Synopsis: 14 months in the lives of real-life surfers Aamion and Daize Goodwin and their two children, Given and True, as they travel from their island home of Kauai in the Hawaiian archipelago through 15 different countries in a quest for waves and The Big Fish

Given is an odd film. It has the form of a documentary but it’s narrated by a young child who more or less filters what we see through his belief in a story that his Dad has told him about a mythical Big Fish. It’s about a globe-trotting journey with a surfing agenda  but some of the places visited such as Nepal or Peru have nothing to do with surfing and it never shows the logistical effort required to make the journey possible. Nor does it more than broadly follow a sequential time frame, one largely trackable by the development of True who we first encounter in utero and farewell shortly after her first birthday. The unidentified hippie-surfer family live a simple back-to-nature kind of lifestyle but the film clearly utilizes sophisticated HD camera technology and complex filming techniques, including dollies, crane and tracking shots as well as under and on water photography to deliver imagery of superb quality.  Given is no point-and-shoot cinema verité travelogue but rather a first class and clearly costly production

Part of the puzzle is explained by the fact that the film is primarily addressed to a specific audience, the surfing fraternity who would know the couple as Daize Goodwin, formally Daize Shayne, a two-time Women’s World Longboard Champion and original Roxy Girl from the early 2000s and her husband, Aamion, a marquee surfer known for his off-the-grid surf adventuring.  A bit more online research and another chunk of the puzzle falls into place. Director Jesse Bianchi is not only a long-time friend of Aamion but is a film school graduate and successful San Francisco-based commercial film-maker who was supported in his mission by generous private funding and a four man team led by D.O.P Devin Whetstone.

These questions out of the way, what of the film, which might usefully be described as “The Little Prince”-meets-Baraka, itself?  Whilst it sounds like it is addressed to a surfer audience, there actually isn’t lot of surfing to be seen and most of that is fairly modest – Aamion shooting some tubes and a heavily pregnant Daize taking on a few gentle waves is pretty much the extent of it. Morning Of the Earth (1971) this is not.

As with Baraka  (which may have contributed a few feet of film) the cinematography is awesome but it is the “Little Prince” aspect which carries the film to its audience as Given’s innocent-yet-wise-beyond-his-years narration (like the rest of the film, more sophisticated than might appear warranted) draws us into the romance of family, the brotherhood of man, the glories of the natural world and a life lived free of the dictates of society.  It may be that this is but a dream that these days in waking life can only be created through the illusion of cinema but it is one well-worth having, indeed it is a tonic for the soul.  

FYI: Given will be showing as part of the 2017 Byron Bay Surf Festival. 

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