Saturday, May 8, 8:45 PM, Bengies Drive In

Director: Stacy Peralta

Cast: Laird Hamilton, Greg Noll, Jeff Clark, Dave Kalama

Country: U.S.
Year: 2004
Running Time: 105 minutes
Format: 35mm

Aided by the newest camera technology, terrific narration by Sean Penn, and an incredible cast of early surfing daredevils, Stacy Peralta, has made a landmark film. Peralta has already chronicled the world of skateboarding in the great Dogtown and Z-Boys, and he uses some of the same film techniques here. Using amazing and newly discovered archival film, he explores the world of "big wave" surfing, and the incredible athletes who ride them from its early history to last summer. Going way beyond the traditional surfing movie, the result is a fresh and fascinating view of a uniquely American subculture. Its visual power is just indescribable.

This year Riding Giants became the first documentary to open Sundance, and the response was electric. It had the most screenings of any single film during the festival, and you couldn't get in. With all due respect to the great projection teams at Sundance, Stacy's "big waves" need a bigger screen, and we're screening it on the biggest screen on the East Coast. This will be the first time it has ever been seen at a Drive- In.

--Jed Dietz