Watch Now: Cult Of Freedom “The Taj Part”

Welcome to the “Taj Part”: the second instalment of Joe G and Globe’s “Cult of Freedom” web series. It’s been seven months since they dropped “The Australian Part” which featured Taj, Noa Deane, Creed Mctaggart, Jay Davies, Brendon Gibbons, Nate Tyler, Eric Gieselman and Dion Agius. If you haven’t yet indulged in COF’s first episode, we recommend you add it to your cue below.

Mr G has been bringing you the “full-length” surf films you’ve purchased on your iTunes for over a decade now. He sat in the director’s chair for such hits as Secret Machine, Year Zero, Strange Rumblings and other motion pictures we typically spend the year anticipating.

Stab: What’s the greatest joy about making a film with Taj?

Joe: Well, this one in particular was truly a Taj run production. We were just lucky enough to be dragged in! [Laughs] When we were on the road together filming for the Australia Part, I was telling him that we’re just going to use Cult of Freedom as a platform to do short films in whatever format opportunity throws at us. Whether it’s a team trip, a rider surf part, an experimental concept film, etc.

Taj and I talked about his newfound freedom from tour and he was getting excited about his ability to go strike anywhere, anytime and really score some serious waves. I said, Yeah man go nail something special and we’ll make a part for Cult of Freedom! He was psyched.

It’s Taj, so he didn’t just walk away and forget what we talked about. He walked away, watched for swell, and went and absolutely scored…then he handed us a hard drive full of insanity and we did our best not to screw it up.

What’s the most difficult thing about filming with Taj?
I’d say the only tough thing with Taj is he’s hard to keep up with. Working closely with him is tricky because he is seriously fast moving and decisive and you pretty much have to live in his garage if you want to be ready to strike when he is…

I might try that actually.

Where were these idyllic and occasionally frightening waves filmed?
This was filmed in the Mentawais by our good friend, Dave Fox, who seems to be capturing some of the most incredible imagery in surfing over the last few years. He and Taj jumped on this thing last minute and absolutely nailed it.

How long has this Cult of Freedom project been in the mix?
We started with the Australia Part late last year and honestly, we meant to launch the next one sooner but we got sidetracked on traveling around and didn’t spend enough time editing the stuff we were getting! [Laughs]

We’ll get better at it, I hope…

Who is next/how many total parts should we expect?
The next piece we’ll launch is the “New Zealand Part” which we shot a few months back with Creed, Dion and Nate Tyler. That trip was so fun and New Zealand blew me away. I’d never been there. Good wine, good cheese, good waves. Right up our alley. The boys were shredding and the place was magical. Kind of a Strange Rumblings vibe to the trip which I’m excited to explore in the edit. Then we have a Creed part in the works as well… Lots on the way!

Globe really wanted us to experiment and contribute to the surf film zeitgeist at a time when many companies simply aren’t doing much, which I think is pretty rad. The total number of parts is kind of up to whatever we want to do. As long as we are having fun with these we’ll keep doing them. It’s been fun not putting the pressure of one big movie release on ourselves and I’d like to keep that going for a while for sure.

Does it feel strange delivering a series for web use as opposed to a feature film?
Nah. We’ve always done shorts for the web and enjoyed this process. We did UNGU way back for Transworld and ICE CREAM and PLUS PLUS for DION and his Globe collection, ELECTRIC BLUE HEAVEN just for fun and a lot of others. I like the freedom of short-form stuff. 

Did Instagram and the internet kill the full-length surf film?
I don’t think so.

I think full-length surf films will definitely have to step it up to get attention though. There are less of them for sure, but I bet there will be some really special films coming from the world of surfing in the future. Hopefully, we make one of them too. Plus – what is full length anyway? These days that’s anything over one minute right?

Watch out, Globe’s next short film series gonna be only five seconds each. Probably go huuuuuge. So watchable!

If you’re in Los Angeles, have some drinks with us for the premiere! Details above.