Surf prodigy Noah Beschen shows off in Hawaii
- Text by Alex Taylor
Aaron Lieber scooped the grand prize at the second REDirect Surf Film Festival with his short THE WILD, which shows 15-year-old surf wunderkind Noah Beschen doing what he does best.
The beautifully shot film follows Noah through a dense forest, showing off Hawaii’s naturally awe-inspiring landscapes and then into the sea. Watching Noah run through the forest, float in the water and get within touching distance of a massive turtle is enough to make anyone question why they’re not out in the water. Like, right now!
THE WILD rests on more than Noah’s undoubted skill as a surfer, though. Lieber has managed to capture how raw and natural surfing is to his subject; he glides effortlessly over the water, spins with absolute ease and looks as comfortable riding a crest as he does running up through the winding jungle paths.
As a reward, RED, who partnered the event with Surfer Magazine, gave Lieber a ton of camera gear ideal for shooting surfing.
David Malcolm placed as Lieber’s runner-up for his film Los Zapatos with Eric Knutson rounding off the top three as well as taking home the Fan Favourite award for Being A Surfer Is Fun.
Check out more from the RED x Surfer Magazine REDirect Surf Film Festival.
You might like
“I didn’t care if I got sacked”: Sleazenation’s Scott King in conversation with Radge’s Meg McWilliams
Radgenation — For our 20th Anniversary Issue, Huck’s editor Josh Jones sits down with the legendary art director and the founder of a new magazine from England’s northeast to talk about taking risks, crafting singular covers and disrupting the middle class dominance of the creative industries.
Written by: Josh Jones
Free-spirited, otherworldly portraits of Mexico City’s queer youth
Birds — Pieter Henket’s new collaborative photobook creates a stage for CDMX’s LGBTQ+ community to express themselves without limitations, styling themselves with wild outfits that subvert gender and tradition.
Written by: Isaac Muk
The suave style and subtle codes of gay San Francisco in the ’70s
Seminal Works — Hal Fischer’s new photobook explores the photographer’s archive, in which he documented the street fashion and culture of the city post-Gay Liberation, and pre-AIDS pandemic.
Written by: Miss Rosen
The stripped, DIY experimentalism of SHOOT zine
Zine Scene — Conceived by photographer Paul Mpagi Sepuya in the ’00s, the publication’s photos injected vulnerability into gay portraiture, and provided a window into the characters of the Brooklyn arts scene. A new photobook collates work made across its seven issues.
Written by: Miss Rosen
Confronting America’s history of violence against student protest
Through A Mirror, Darkly — In May 1970, two separate massacres at American college campuses saw deaths at the hands of the state. Naeem Mohaiemen’s new three-channel film memorialises the brutality.
Written by: Miss Rosen
New film champions women surfers tackling the huge waves of Nazaré
Undercurrents — Filmmaker Maddie Meddings’ latest documentary focuses on big-wave superstar Laura Crane as she helps prepare 16-year-old Imari Hearn to take up big wave surfing.
Written by: Sydney Lobe