Watch: FISHTANK Starring Bodhi Leigh-Jones

At some point, unless you’re a freak blessed with permanent contentment and sound mind, you might find yourself asking: ahem, sorry, but what the fuck is going on here?

And why am I doing any of this?

If you’ve been mugged by those paralysing questions of existence, hopefully, along the way, you’ve found some words to drag you through. Zadie Smith put it nicely in an old essay: why we have this time is an important question, sure, but whether you understand it or not, the hours keep arriving, asking to be used. 

Dress the dog as a cat. Paint a masterpiece. File some files. It’s all the same basic problem: what are you to do with the allotment of time you’ve been handed?

Such questions seem to have reached the mind of surfer, shaper and creator Bodhi Leigh-Jones. Her new film, FISHTANK, opens with a voiceover of a poem she wrote, which shares the film’s name:

“How do I obtain the energy to achieve everyday tasks knowing that I was once nothing and that I will one day return to nothing?”

And also:

“I see these people in boxes and I don’t want to be like them but I don’t want to be like me either. The boxes refine and control you, but they also give you meaning and community and stability.”

It’s a real doozy. Do yourself a favour and check it out if you fancy a little existential jousting.

The film also contains clips of Bodhi handing out hits at a northern NSW point break on boards she shaped herself. Later, she talks about the importance of going surfing, or making something, without a specific goal in mind. Just to fill the time. It’s simply something to do.

The clip was put together by current EAST shaper Corey Munn, owner of the Double-Ender submission that Harry unfortunately snapped on its first surf in Costa Rica. 

Go ahead and push play above. It’s a pretty good way to spend a few minutes of the limited supply.