Post-modern surfing finally has its film-making equivalent. Come and meet him, he's in here.
His name is Kai Neville and like almost every other person in this industry, he is a tiny little man. It’s strange to meet the men behind and in front of these all-encompassing surf films. They’re all so small. A bite-sized little man with blonde crimped hair and a cutesy, almost cartoonish head, Kai Neville is friendly, charismatic, effervescent, and armed with the full array of handshake greetings. (I got trapped in a half-bro shake to botched knuckle bump upon introducing myself.)
Last night was the launch of his solo project the Modern Collective, held in a baron, almost industrial-style Coolangatta nightclub.
What’s that you say? Industrial? Coolangatta? Nightclub? Yes siree, times, they are a-altering. Australiana’s arm-bar over surfing and surf film-making is weakening. And there couldn’t have been a better metaphor for this than the launch of the Modern Collective.
As the text generation emu-bobbed to an industrial trance rhythm, draped in their loose fitting singlets and skinny jeans, across the road was the premiere of a Matt Gye and Shagga film - all regulation jeans, non-descript surf brand teos and a surf film featuring for the most part, already established surfers.
Separated by a street was the old and the new, and if the surfing power brokers who attended the launch of the Modern Collective were any gauge, and they are, it’s obvious where the surf arts are heading.
The film being showcased as part of the Modern Collective launch was Days of Strange, an avant garde little number, with an acid-nightmare quality to it, a pulsating synth-soundtrack and a who’s what of futuristic surfers: Dane, Jordy, Julian, Coleborn, Dusty etc. Whilst the footage was not Kai’s cream (it was a seconds film), we did get a snapshot of where surf filmmaking was heading.
It’s established that Kai’s team is the future of surfing, though it must be said now that Kai Neville is the future of surf film-making. He is the heir apparent to the Taylor Steele and Poor Specimen empire. He is young, in synch and totally immersed in fringe-pop culture and his films reflect that. This was Neville’s first independently produced film showcased to the masses, and as such our first look at the man who will be dictating the next decade of trends in hi-fidelity surf films. And it was way cool. Pretty much incomparable to anything in the surf film realm.
Accordingly, surfing’s heavyweights and the swarms of attractive women that follow, were there. Here are some pictures of them…- Jed Smith.


































































































Posts: 13
Reply #13 on : Wed December 16, 2009, 13:23:30