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Poster for Self Discovery for Social Survival
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Self Discovery for Social Survival

Director: Chris Gentile Run Time: 90 min. Format: Digital Release Year: 2019

Self Discovery for Social Survival is a collaborative film between record label Mexican Summer and Pilgrim Surf + Supply, a New York-based surf and outdoor brand. Surfers in the film include seven-time world champion Stephanie Gilmore, Creed McTaggart, Ryan Burch and more. The film is accompanied by an original soundtrack featuring music by Allah Las, Connan Mockasin, Andrew VanWyngarden of MGMT and Peaking Lights, plus additional tracks by Dungen and Jefre Cantu-Ledesma.

Self Discovery for Social Survival works as a triptych, with three separate vignettes filmed in Mexico, the Maldives and Iceland. The musicians and pro-surfers embark on a journey that combines a symbiotic relationship between music and the waves, the environment and local culture. Narrated by the legendary avant-garde filmmaker Jonas Mekas, a voice holding as much depth as the ocean itself, Self Discovery for Social Survival captures the international, interweaving, and universal language of surf culture.

Before the Self Discovery for Social Survival, we’ll be screening the short Nu Rhythmo, directed by Sam Smith.

In TSJ 28.2, surfer Michael February, writer and filmmaker Sam Smith, photographer Alan Van Gysen, and cinematographer Wade Carroll land in West Africa to explore the local music scene, plus the rhythms and pacing of a sand-bottom point wave.

Trailer