Surf films these days are, for the most part, pretty much the same shit regurgitated through a different filter with a different surfer. The shit they’re regurgitating is incredible, but like that old saying goes, “show me the most beautiful girl in the world, and I’ll show you the man who is tired of sleeping with her.”
The Sound of Silence is not on the same path as those films. It’s not a 2 minute clip with palm trees and barrels ad nauseam. “It is a film about discovery through disconnecting from day to day information at our fingertips, instant gratification and chaos,” says director Dan Mace. “It’s a film about adventure in its purest form.”
Traveling without mobile devices or any connection to the outside world, Lee-Ann Curren and Bianca Buitendag made their way through a part of South Africa known as the Transkei, a wild place situated on the Eastern Cape. Using only a map, they adventured like adventuring used to be done.
In a time when everything is instant, things that should be full of substance are changed into things that are done simply for the narcissistic need for others to see what you’re doing. Adventure is a personal thing. Focussing on the moment at hand seems to be turning into a bit of a lost art. But films like this one might just make someone head off the beaten track, get lost, and live to tell about it.
