Riding Giants

Riding Giants
Riding Giants
	Paul Crowder
Music by	Matter
Production; company	StudioCanal
Distributed by	Sony Pictures Classics
Release dates	January 2004; (Sundance); July 9, 2004; (United States)
Running time	101 minutes
Countries	United States; France
Language	English

Riding Giants is a 2004 documentary film produced by Agi Orsi and directed and narrated by Stacy Peralta, a famous skater/surfer. The movie traces the origins of surfing and specifically focuses on the art of big wave riding. Some of the featured surfers are Greg Noll, Laird Hamilton, and Jeff Clark, and surfing pioneers such as Mickey Munoz. The film premiered at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival.

Synopsis

The film begins with a historical overview, starting at its

Mavericks in Northern California and surfed there alone for years; and Laird Hamilton

, the contemporary surfer who brings tow-in riding to the limelight.

Production

Peralta previously directed the acclaimed documentary Dogtown and Z-Boys, which documented the rise of skateboarding, of which he was an integral part. The French producer Franck Marty, along with his partners, chose him to direct a new breed of big wave riding documentary film. He has said that the primary purpose of making a surfing documentary was that he "wanted to see a film like this", and that he hoped it helped to answer the question "why people choose to devote their entire lives to the pursuit of riding waves."^[1]

Riding Giants utilizes stills, archive footage, "re-enacted" footage, home movies, and interviews. Some of the surfers interviewed include Jeff Clark, Laird Hamilton, Dave Kalama, Gerry Lopez, Greg Noll, Kelly Slater and Peter Mel.

Soundtrack music

Includes:

Érik Satie and The Waterboys

.

Reception

Riding Giants was the first documentary film to open the

Paul Crowder. According to Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a 92% fresh rating, having earned mostly positive reviews from critics, with the website's critics consensus calling it "a great addition to the existing surfing documentaries."^[2] Roger Ebert said in his review, "Before seeing Riding Giants, my ideas about surfing were formed by the Gidget movies, Endless Summer, The Beach Boys, Elvis

and lots of TV commercials. Riding Giants is about altogether another reality."

References

^ "Riding Giants official site interview with Stacy Peralta". Sony Pictures Classics. Archived from the original on July 2, 2019. Retrieved July 10, 2006.
^ "Riding Giants - Reviews at Rotten Tomatoes". Archived from the original on April 21, 2024. Retrieved January 24, 2007.

External links

Riding Giants at
IMDb

[1] "Riding Giants official site interview with Stacy Peralta". Sony Pictures Classics. Archived from the original on July 2, 2019. Retrieved July 10, 2006.

[2] "Riding Giants - Reviews at Rotten Tomatoes". Archived from the original on April 21, 2024. Retrieved January 24, 2007.

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