Format:  DVD
Release Year: 2008
Running Time: 60 min +
Producer: Inner Tube Films
Region:  Region Free (All)
Rating: 

Leave it to the first-timer to start a revolution. Stanford students and freshman filmmakers Britton Caillouette and Nicholai Lidow team up for their new surfing video release, Sliding Liberia, a story about war, peace and surfing on the world’s deadliest stretch of coastline. Combining an epic quest for perfect surf with documentary-style interviews of local Liberians (including the only Liberia surfer), the directors invent a completely new film genre––one where surfing becomes a catalyst for social justice. As pro’s Dan Malloy, Chris Del Moro, and Crystal Thornburg follow their friend Nicholai’s lead through the war-torn country in search of what could be the best wave setup in Africa, they are forced to recognize the harsh realities of their surroundings.

Shot in a hybrid of 16 mm, video, and archival footage, Sliding Liberia has won awards at several major film festivals, including the Grand Prize at the Alpinist Film Festival, the Emerging Filmmaker Award at X-Dance, and Best Surf Film at the Byron Bay Film Festival, and boasts media coverage in several major surf and non-surf publications worldwide.

“The last two [surf films} I saw were also…the most new-feeling surf movies in years: the Abberton brothers’ Bra Boys, and a rough cut of Nicholai Lidow and Britt Caillouette’s Sliding Liberia. Both are fascinating for their sideways looks at the surf culture. Surfing performance isn’t the issue, or even a secondary interest of these two; instead, they’re trying to connect surfing with Real Life. That in itself––in a form devoted mostly to fantasy––is kinda revolutionary”––Nick Carroll

Riders: Dan Malloy, Chris Del Moro, Crystal Thornburg, Nicholai Lidow