hola

Received this photo of a newspaper clipping from Santander, Spain.  Thanks to Carlos Restegui of Cine Los Angeles for sending this back.

Next screening is this Wednesday, January 22nd, at 10pm in Munich, Germany.  Hangs Upon Nothing is showing as part of Surffilmfestival Munich, and this will be the German premiere:

http://surffilmfestival.de/munich/

2nd screening - july 31 - honolulu

Today at 1pm at the Honolulu Museum of Art's Doris Duke Theatre: http://www.honolulumuseum.org/events/films/13788-hangs_upon_nothing

Pictured above is Mikala Jones between the trees.  Super 16mm film frame.

the left & the bucket ladies

This is how some of my poster design ideas start out, as quick small sketches without a lot of thought put into them. I'd like to revisit these two designs sometime. Daniel Jones on the left and his brother Mikala on the right, both inspired by rides I filmed of them.  the one of Daniel I painted up bigger.  It can be viewed in the art gallery on the Hangs Upon Nothing site: http://www.hangsuponnothing.com/art/

& stop by and say what up! on the film's fb page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Hangs-Upon-Nothing-a-16mm-surf-film/246361802068338

double dragon

Mikala Jones and the two headed dragon. Jem Cresswell photo.

heading out

Mikala Jones, Marti Paradisis, and Kristov Wau(in the foreground) head out. Jem Cresswell is contributing photos to this project, and he shot this one. This wave looks pretty, but it was scary even from the boat, as some sets swing very wide. One wide one sucked up right in front of us while Daniel and I were on board and we barely scratched over it. I thought for sure we were going to get flipped.

Nias local Kristov is an awesome guy, always smiling, and he absolutely charges. He has a habit of sitting deeper than anyone else, and this session he got into the biggest wave he said he'd ever surfed up to this point. If you're headed out that way, you can contact him on fb, him and his family rent out a simple place to stay and they'll take good care of you: http://www.facebook.com/pages/nias-kristov-surf-camp/222323464481308?sk=wall

or http://id-id.facebook.com/people/Kristov-Wau/100000267507460

Jem Cresswell: http://jemcresswell.com/

articles

interview feature on Korduroy

GrindTV write up

Contrast Magazine write up

where the tigers are

This logo design(click image to enlarge) was done by Marcin Zeglinski. http://poduski.com/

____________________

Keoni Jones, dropping into a blue wall. Keoni is on a board that older brother Mikala shaped back in Hawaii. It was the 2nd board Mikala had ever shaped. A 2+1 fin set up with a long fin box in the middle.

I recently told a friend who's from this general area that we went by motorbike two hours through jungle paths to get to this spot. He'd been over here before, but by boat. His eyes opened wide and he goes, "You know there's tigers there..."

I hadn't thought about that possibility at the time. We didn't see any though. I do remember that after we took the motorbikes as far as we could, on foot we hiked over these ridges under arching canopies of bamboo so big it felt like something from Honey I Shrunk the Kids. This bamboo was enormous, made me feel miniature.

this film project on fb: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Hangs-Upon-Nothing-a-16mm-surf-film/246361802068338

morning of mikala

Mikala Jones, setting up for a long barrel. The light here reminds me of some shots from Morning of the Earth. I really relate to that film and the vision Alby Falzon brought to it. Amazing film and one of the inspirations for this project.

this film project on fb: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Hangs-Upon-Nothing-a-16mm-surf-film/246361802068338

jurassic

Mikala Jones. The land of towering trees.

deep

If you're wondering...he made it. Mikala Jones, glassy morning barrel.

mikala

Spit out of the barrel. These frame grabs are from a low quality film to video transfer without color correction, unlike many of the recent frame grabs that are from full HD transfers. Still, I love this sequence. The force of the spit of the barrel sends Mikala's hair flying in that last frame.

the old man on the beach

This old Balinese man was collecting something washing up with the waves in his basket. I'm not sure what. The swell was big, and each wave would wash up over him. He'd stay in one spot for a few minutes, then get up and move a ways down and sit down again. He didn't seem to pay any attention to the surfers out there.

This man was very old. He walked hunched over, bow legged. And he'd put his basked on top of his head when he walked. I often wonder what these old timers must think of all this surfing, and cameras, and dance clubs, and all that is Bali now.

That's Mikala Jones on that wave. I didn't have my Bolex fully wound up on this one so I only got him dropping in. So this ride will make for better stills than a shot in the movie.

shade

mikala

jones

film poster design

While away the last three months, spent some time sketching some more poster designs for the film. This one is supposed to be Mikala in the barrel of a big frothy one.

portraits

Some portraits I did last July after a trip with some of the guys in the film. This one was to a remote corner of Indonesia on a local boat. Mikala Jones, his brother Daniel, and Timmy Turner. Daniel at top in the barrel of a lifetime. And that drawing of Timmy is of how he reacted when I asked him about his artificial skull. Without hesitation he told me to feel the line around his entire head where his real skull ends and his new one begins. Amazingly, all the scars are under his hair and you can't see them when his hair is grown out.

There is a great write up on Timmy here: http://www.mensjournal.com/timmy-turner

The Surfer's Journal Volume 19 No.1

Brothers Mikala and Daniel Jones, Timmy Turner, and Dustin Humphrey were headed somewhere remote. I got the invite to bring my Bolex and shoot some 16mm film to add to the ongoing film project. It was all last minute, I didn't know much of anything about where we were going. This was not a magazine organized trip. It was more of a getaway for a few friends. Dustin, Timmy, and the Jones brothers have all been friends for years. Dustin brought along his camera gear in case it got good. Halfway through the trip I asked Dustin if it'd be cool if I tried to write a story. Plus do some drawings. He was all for it. This is what we ended up with:

http://www.surfersjournal.com/current_issue

It's called "a roll of the dice". In these parts Third Coast Surf Shop carries the journal, and I've also seen it at Borders. Hope you can check it out.

-Jeremy

glassy empty waves

poster sketch for the film

A few days ago I went with Mikala and his right hand man, Koming, and friend Scott, looking for waves to surf and shoot. At sunrise we ended up at the same secluded spot we went to the day before. It had been overhead and barreling, and was looking quite good the day before. I shot from land and Mikala surfed alone. The plan was to shoot in the water on this, our second day there.

It didn't look quite as perfect this day. And the swell had dropped some. Still, where I'm from, it would be considered epic. Koming didn't wan't to come out, "Its not that good," he said. If I grew up in a land of perfect waves, I might think the same.

"He just doesn't want to go right!" Mikala said. Mikala and I paddled out, and the bumps disappeared. It was total glass. Rice fields and temples could be seen from the water. And a few fishing boats out beyond us. The water was clean, and shined a beautiful silver blue in the morning. The sand below was black.

As beautiful as this sounds, there was a surprising amount of plastic rubbish on the beach. Like most empty beaches I have been to recently.

Looking to the north there are miles and miles of peaks that probably no one was on. I'm sure soon enough these will see more people. But there are still uncrowded waves to be found.

staring into the sun - pt. 1

I sat alone in my apartment in Chicago six years ago, staring at my computer screen. My eyes weren't focused though. I remember the warm orange afternoon light shining through the window, and reflecting off the screen. And it hit me like a train, what on earth was I doing with my life? I was 24. I had recently gotten out of my first long relationship. I had quit my full time job a few months before so that I could pursue creating my own art and music. I felt like I had grown up quicker than I expected. My dad used to tell me as a kid, "enjoy your youth, you're only a kid once." For the first time ever, I felt like I was aging. My hair was even starting to thin a bit on the top of my head.

I remember that at that moment I decided I was going to learn how to surf. I came up with the plan right there. I would buy a surfboard and head to Samoa. I had read about Samoa a few years before in an old National Geographic, and of anywhere I had ever read about, Samoa sounded like paradise.

a month later

"Where are you going?" she asked, smiling. She was carrying a cardboard tray with seven paper cups of coffee on it. She was quite big, darker skin, and had black shiny hair pulled back into a pony tail.

"Suhmoa," I said.

"SAHmoa." She quickly replied, correcting my pronunciation. "That's where I'm from!"

"Who's all the coffee for?" I asked. She looked down at the tray, then looked back up and grinned bashfully.

"Me." she said. She then offered me one of her cups of coffee. Akanese was her name. Her and her older sister Liz had come to the airport in Honolulu for the departure of the one flight a week to Samoa on Samoa's one airline, Polynesian Air. They had one plane. Lounging around there, I had never seen people so big before. Everyone. They were almost all huge. And everyone seemed really, really kicked back. The plane was hours late, and no one seemed to care. Pretty much everyone waiting around here looked Polynesian. I remember an ukulele version of John Lennon's "Imagine" was being played in the airport. And I remember the warm evening breeze.

Liz and Akanese were looking for someone to take a large cardboard box full of gifts back to their family in Samoa. They couldn't find any takers. So Akanese asked me. "Well...uh, sure, I'll do it. can I take a look inside the box?"

to be continued soon...