El Mar, Mi Alma (Stephen Jones, 2011): Australia

Reviewed by Krista Marquez, Santa Barbara Film Festival.

This film is quite captivating.  Jones takes us off shore of Chile’s coast as the elegant folk sounds of Manuel Garcia play as we watch, paralleling the emotions I am experiencing.  The cinematography is fascinating and beautiful and the respect portrayed for this natural entity, known as the ocean, is remarkable.  I am not a surfer, myself, but felt as if on the same level as those in the film as I continued to watch.  The Chileans of the coast live harmoniously with the sea, and respect it in the highest regard.  The film poetical touches on other aspects of the Chilean environment like the issues of deforestation and water pollution.

We are taken to Valaparaiso, off the coast of central Chile.  The large bustling downtown city where ancestral, artisan fishing is being outrun by commercial fisheries.  This is just one problem the society faces.  Many Chileans are faced with pollution of the ocean that surrounds them, as the problem arises in other parts of the world.  Those who do notice are the ones who spend the most time with the ocean: the fishermen, the surfers.

I honestly didn’t know what I was getting myself into with this one.  I did not expect such sophistication in filmmaking as I have seen in many of my friend’s surf videos; however, this was much more formal, and in my opinion, the best surf film I have yet to see.  The shots are amazing, as well as the stories shared with local natives.  The cinematographer captures both the giant cityscape with the ocean in the same frame, an emotional juxtaposition.  Another is a shot of the sky quilted by clouds in the afternoon above the turquoise sea reflecting broken light.  This film is truly a work of art.  Didn’t you see those perfectly amazing barrels?