All The Best Surfers Have Funny Names
By Scott Smith in Arts & Entertainment on Jan 6, 2005 1:45PM
Chicagoist enjoyed the surfing movie Blue Crush as far as it went: great camera work, cute girls in bikinis, tolerable clichés. But lines like “You were working it like a rib without the sauce” didn’t exactly smack of reality. So we were kind of excited that Chicago Filmmakers (5243 N. Clark) was screening Heart of the Sea: Kapolioka’ehukai (although we were less than thrilled about the prospect of spelling it correctly for this post) as part of their Dyke Delicious series that starts this Saturday.
Winner of a handful of film festival awards, Heart of the Sea is an hour-long documentary on Rell Kapolioka’ehukai Sunn (thank you, cut and paste!), who was one of the founding members of the Women’s Professional Surfing Association. After fighting for the respect of women in a male-dominated sport, Sunn waged an even tougher battle when she was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 32. The rest of her life was spent as an activist for breast cancer awareness—due in no small part to the high incidence of the disease among Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander women. It’s a story filled with heartfelt inspiration and touching ukulele music. Sponsored by the Lesbian Community Cancer Project, the film is preceded by Tomboys! Feisty Girls and Spirited Women! , which reveals that women don’t always stop climbing trees and playing softball when they hit high school. No shit? (P.S. This is a good thing). Admission is $7 and there’s a social hour at 7 PM before the films begin at 8.
Also on this month’s Chicago Filmmakers agenda is their Film Trash and Treasure sale. Something akin to a garage sale at Francis Ford Coppola’s house, CF will be casting off all kinds of old film and camera equipment and other knickknacks that will make the artist in you drool. The sale runs from 11 AM to 6 PM on January 15th and 16th. Be sure to show up on time before the Columbia College kids make it out of bed. Just kidding, Columbia! Go Coyotes!
Image: Chicago Filmmakers