Fest Track On Sirk TV Film Review: WHITE RHINO [San Luis Obispo Film Festival 2021 - Virtual]

The essence of big wave surfing has always been an interesting progression because it is literally, at times, a life or death race with mother nature and the unknown. "White Rhino", playing as part of Surf Nite at the San Luis Obispo Film Festival, is an interesting journey during the 2011/2012 surf season that created some of the biggest swells and waves across the Middle & South Pacific. The film which is a collaboration of Brian Bielmann, a surf photographer along with some of his collaborators gives an interesting view of the season from both their passion and technical perspective. While there is video, the use of photographs, and, in some aspects, animated photographs, the film really gives a sense of the immensity of the waves. It seems during that season, the cyclones in the South Pacific created an unusual play of tides which along with some places opening up certain areas that had been off limits before, added to the fervor. There are some that were part of competitions but those actually seemed like pop ups that happened with the big sponsors seeing opportunities that drew big name surfers. While it starts off on the North Shore of Oahu in Hawaii, it quickly moves to a place in Fiji called Cloudbreak which, at that time, was recently opened by the government there. It seems a balancing act because the aspect of the the thrill, capturing the images and the liability are an interesting intersection. Some of the waves that are seen are quite interesting but it is the last stop in Tahiti at a place where the winds and the tides intersect as the perfect storm that is the most interesting. The fury of one wave and the image it produces with one surfer is insane and it is interesting to the see the reflection of the surfers. There is also one mythic run on the same area from a different perspective later that same day which really brings the journey full circle. The film, unlike something like "Riding Giants", is reveled in a small microcosm of time (and reflected on now by slightly older pros) chronicling an interesting passage of time where the White Rhino (aka a rare big wave) came out to play. B+

By Tim Wassberg