''Hollywood Don't Surf!'' is a 2011 documentary film that premiered in the

2010 Cannes Film Festival The 63rd Cannes Film Festival took place from 12 to 23 May 2010. American filmmaker Tim Burton served as jury president for the main competition. Thai filmmaker Apichatpong Weerasethakul won the Palme d'Or, the festival's top prize, for the dram ...

while a work in progress and held its North American premiere at the 2011

Telluride Film Festival The Telluride Film Festival (TFF) is a film festival held annually in Telluride, Colorado, during Labor Day, Labor Day weekend (the first Monday in September). The 51st Telluride Film Festival, 51st edition took place on August 30–September ...

, where it was presented to a packed park at the

Abel Gance Abel Gance (; born Abel Eugène Alexandre Péréthon; 25 October 188910 November 1981) was a French film director, producer, writer and actor. A pioneer in the theory and practice of montage, he is best known for three major silent films: ''J'ac ...

Outdoor theater by actress

Daryl Hannah Daryl Hannah (born December 3, 1960) is an American actress and environmental activist. She made her film debut in Brian De Palma's supernatural horror film ''The Fury (1978 film), The Fury'' (1978). She has starred in various films across the ...

. Narrated by

Robert Englund Robert Barton Englund (born June 6, 1947) is an American actor and director. Englund is best known for playing the villain Freddy Krueger in the ''A Nightmare on Elm Street'' franchise. Englund has received multiple accolades and honors, incl ...

, the film explores the purportedly strained relationship between Hollywood film makers and the

surfing Surfing is a surface water sport in which an individual, a surfer (or two in tandem surfing), uses a board to ride on the forward section, or face, of a moving wave of water, which usually carries the surfer towards the shore. Waves suita ...

community. After an irreverent and wild main title sequence (including the first printed and filmed images of surfing), ''Hollywood Don't Surf!'' examines the legendary film '' Gidget'' and the subsequent surf exploitation

genre Genre () is any style or form of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other fo ...

that followed, centering on the ambitious

John Milius John Frederick Milius (; born April 11, 1944) is an American screenwriter and film director. He is considered a member of the New Hollywood generation of filmmakers. He rose to prominence in the early 1970s for writing the scripts for ''The L ...

written and directed 1978

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (WBEI), commonly known as Warner Bros. (WB), is an American filmed entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California and the main namesake subsidiary of Warner Bro ...

film '' Big Wednesday'', a commercial disappointment at the time, and the smattering of surf films that followed as '' Big Wednesday'' enjoyed a subsequent rebirth as a

cult film A cult film, also commonly referred to as a cult classic, is a film that has acquired a cult following. Cult films are known for their dedicated, passionate fanbase, which forms an elaborate subculture, members of which engage in repeated ...

home video Home video is recorded media sold or Video rental shop, rented for home viewing. The term originates from the VHS and Betamax era, when the predominant medium was videotapes, but has carried over to optical disc formats such as DVD and Blu-ray. ...

. The documentary features: *

Quentin Tarantino Quentin Jerome Tarantino (; born March 27, 1963) is an American filmmaker, actor, and author. Quentin Tarantino filmography, His films are characterized by graphic violence, extended dialogue often featuring much profanity, and references to ...

Steven Spielberg Steven Allan Spielberg ( ; born December 18, 1946) is an American filmmaker. A major figure of the New Hollywood era and pioneer of the modern blockbuster, Spielberg is widely regarded as one of the greatest film directors of all time and is ...

Jan-Michael Vincent Jan-Michael Vincent (July 15, 1944 – February 10, 2019) was an American actor. He emerged as a leading man in the 1970s, playing notable roles in films like '' Going Home'' (1971), which earned him a Golden Globe nomination for Best Sup ...

* Stacy Peralta *

Gary Busey William Gary Busey (; born June 29, 1944) is an American actor. He portrayed Buddy Holly in ''The Buddy Holly Story'' (1978), for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor and won the National Society of Film Critics Award fo ...

* Lee Purcell *

Frankie Avalon Francis Thomas Avallone (born September 18, 1940), better known as Frankie Avalon, is an American singer, actor and former teen idol. He had 31 charting U.S. ''Billboard (magazine), Billboard'' singles from 1958 to late 1962, including Record ...

* John Stockwell *

Nia Peeples Virenia "Nia" Peeples (born December 10, 1961) is an American R&B and dance music singer and actress. Peeples is known for playing Nicole Chapman on the TV series ''Fame (1982 TV series), Fame''; Pam Fields on the drama ''Pretty Little Liars''; ...

William Katt William Theodore Katt (born February 16, 1951) is an American actor and musician. He is best known for his starring role as Ralph Hinkley/Hanley on the ABC television series '' The Greatest American Hero'' (1981–1983). Katt first became k ...

Laird Hamilton Laird John Hamilton (né Zerfas; born March 2, 1964) is an American big wave surfing, big-wave surfer, co-inventor of tow-in surfing, and an occasional fashion and action-sports model and actor. He is married to Gabrielle Reece, a former professi ...

Greg Noll Greg Noll (' Lawhead; February 11, 1937 – June 28, 2021) was an American pioneer of big wave surfing and a prominent longboard shaper. Nicknamed "Da Bull" by Phil Edwards in reference to his physique and way of charging down the face of a w ...

* Kathy Kohner-Zuckerman * Rick Dano * Holly Beck

References

External links

* 2011 films American sports documentary films 2011 documentary films Films directed by Greg MacGillivray Documentary films about surfing MacGillivray Freeman Films films American surfing films 2010s English-language films 2010s American films English-language documentary films {{sport-documentary-film-stub