Riding Giants (2004) is a documentary film that follows Surfing’s history, highlighting commentary from three predominant surfers: Greg Knoll, Jeff Clark and Laird Hamilton. If you’re a surfer, this is a must-see film. If you’re like me and you don’t surf but you enjoy documentary films it’s not a must-see film. But, I’ll tell you why you might want to take a closer look at Riding Giants– there are some valuable lessons learned.

If you’re like most Videomaker readers, you know what being an enthusiast/hobbyist is all about. It’s an obsession and it has it’s own subculture. You also know that your fanatic interests are not so compelling to most folks. So, watching this film made me reflect upon how a film about a particular subculture can be accessible to a general audience.

Riding Giants pays homage to Surfing’s most sacred big wave riders. The key to making this documentary is getting access to the characters and story. Yeah, you’ve heard about this before when I blogged about 51 Birch Street . I just want to reinforce this important part of documentary filmmaking before we talk about another key element. Access is critical here to reveal the details of Surfing’s history. The next most critical component is character. I felt as a viewer that Greg Knoll’s character was most interesting. And, I’m glad they used his commentary throughout the documentary. Without Knoll, I’m fairly certain the last 30-minutes of the film would have been much worse. My interest fell off about 45-minutes in and again around the 55-minute mark as I went in and out of feeling compelled to watch. I’m not saying the last 30-minutes was crap, it just seemed a little lost at times– disconnected, really, because Jeff Clark and Laird Hamilton couldn’t hold my attention as characters. Unfortunately, adding more Knoll was not the solution, as this point in Surfing history, Knoll is not in the picture. I think the filmmakers did their best to add Knoll’s take on the events– that helped tie things together a bit, but it wasn’t enough in my opinion.

I thought about it in a very distracting manner throughout the remaining part of the film, trying to figure out how character development could really help push the last 30-minutes of the film. And, then the answer came to me from the film itself. As the narrator was wrapping up the final thoughts of the film with a healthy dose of grandiloquence, there was a statement about big waves and the timelessness of riding waves. This idea gave way to the waves being a character in the film. And, in fact, much of Knoll’s commentary refers to the big waves in Waimea Bay as a girlfriend. There it is. Personifying the waves connects the different eras of surfing’s history and in the later part of the film, such personification of the waves drops off significantly when Knolls character also takes a back seat. And the result, I believe, is that the viewer becomes somewhat disconnected with the principle character (the Big Waves) and the story becomes somewhat lost. Case in point, the tragic death of Mark Foo at Mavericks. This was a very interesting plot point, but it would have had more impact if we also see the enormity* of the Big Wave that took Mark Foo’s life; the transformation of a sweet Waimea girlfriend into a vicious killer. Watch it and see if you feel the same way.

I think Riding Giants will have its place among the Surfer enthusiast crowd for sure. But for general audiences, the film flags at about 45-minutes due in part, I believe, to some character development problems. On a side note, if you do choose to check this out, keep an eye out for two lens-flare effects that are incredibly trashy attempts to highlight certain aspects of the clips in which they reside. It was shameful really. So, two lessons learned, character is key to a good documentary and stay away from the pointless lens flare. Above all else, stay away from the lens flare. After seeing that I half expect to see a page peel.

Watch the Riding Giants trailer:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADy8f6t4Ri8[/youtube]

*Additional Side Note:
I love words. Did you know that enormity is commonly used incorrectly? Enormity does not refer to the magnitude of an event, but rather the viciousness of it. And, in using it to describe a Big Wave that took someone’s life, it’s hard to discern the meaning.

Here’s a good primer on documentary film: 51 Birch Street, directed by Doug Block. It has all the classic components of a good documentary. I highly recommend you watch it and consider how Block’s access to this story is critical in revealing the truth about the characters. Also, I found a particular revisit to an image the Block shot of a character striking. See if you can find what I’m talking about. If you need a clue the first occurrence is with one character and the second occurrence is with another (controversial) character. They’re nearly identical shots and they tell volumes of what Block is thinking as the director and feeling as a subject in his own film. If you watch it, please leave me a comment and let me know what you think.

Here’s the 51 Birch Street trailer.