She Is the Ocean

Movies to See Right Now (at home) – Thanksgiving Weekend Edition

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Brian Dennehy, Lucas Jaye and Hong Chau in DRIVEWAYS

While we are gathered – or NOT gathered – with family this Thanksgiving, I recommend 2020’s best family film, Driveways. It’s high on my list of the Best Movies of 2020 – So Far, and I hope it doesn’t get lost among the prestige movies poised for Holiday release.

This is the FINAL WEEKEND for Noir City International – coming TO YOUR HOME with great classic movies that you can’t find anywhere else. Please take advantage of this very rare opportunity through November 29.

ON VIDEO

Driveways: I can’t think of a more authentic movie about intergenerational relationships than this charming, character-driven indie. The more I think about Driveways, the more I admire it. It also features the final performance – so genuine and subtle – by Brian Dennehy. Driveways is available to stream on all the major platforms.

She Is the Ocean: In this visually stunning documentary, fearless and high-achieving women celebrate the oceans in science and sport. Now streaming at Laemmle’s.

Cinta Hansel in SHE IS THE OCEAN

The most eclectic watch-at-home recommendations you’ll find ANYWHERE:

ON TV

Joseph Cotten and theresa Wright in SHADOW OF A DOUBT

On Thursday and Friday, Turner Classic Movies presents a Hitchcock-a-thon: Rear Window, The Man Who Knew Too Much, The Birds, Psycho, Rope, The Lady Vanishes, Strangers on a Train, Saboteur, Torn Curtain, Marnie, The Trouble with Harry and Shadow of a Doubt.

What a lineup – festooned by some of the most iconic American movies, like Psycho, Strangers on a Train, Rear Window and The Birds! The most overlooked may be Shadow of a Doubt, with its great performances by Joseph Cotten and Teresa Wright. And it was shot in Santa Rosa.

In the second-earliest of these films, Saboteur, the wonderful character actor Norman Lloyd got to play the villain; 78 years later, Lloyd is still alive at age 106 – and still a great raconteur.

Norman Lloyd (then 28-years-old) in SABOTEUR

SHE IS THE OCEAN: women celebrating the oceans in science and sport

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Ocean Ramsey in SHE IS THE OCEAN

Inna Blokhina’s visually stunning documentary She Is the Ocean explores passion and possibilities. The passion is for celebrating the world’s oceans through science and sport. The possibilities are the great achievements that women can and have achieved in its pursuit.

She Is the Ocean introduces us to a stable of women with astonishing accomplishments, including:

  • Keala Kennelly, the woman’s pro surfing champ who now competes in men’s pro surfing events.
  • Andre Moller, who surfs the monster wave Jaws and paddle boards on the open ocean between Hawaiian Islands.
  • Anna Bader, a championship cliff diver whose highest dive has been from almost eight stories and who trains while pregnant.
  • Marine biologist Ocean Ramsey, known as the Shark Whisperer.
  • Teen surf prodigy Coco Ho, who by age twenty has been voted the world’s second most popular female surfer.
  • Oceanographer Sylvia Earle, still at it 65 years after her first dive, who led the first team of female aquanauts in 1970 and set the record for a single 1000-meter dive.

These women are tied together by their passion. Ramsay says, “I feel more comfortable and more graceful under water. I spend more time with the sharks than my family.“

This Spring, well after She Is the Ocean was completed, Brazilian pro surfer Maya Gabeira conquered a record wave in Portugal, so a woman now holds the Guinness record for surfing the biggest wave ever.

Cinta Hansel in SHE IS THE OCEAN

But the core of She Is the Ocean – and its passion and possibilities – is Balinese Cinta Hansel, the ten-year-old middle daughter of surfer and board shaper Bruce Hansel. Since she was eight, Cinta has aspired to be a world class surfer. Her dad has helped her, and she has become a prodigy. She is absolutely determined, and the joy she feels in the surf is infectious.

Inna Blokhina and her team of cinematographers and editors have created a visual masterpiece in glorious 4K. The underwater and surf shots are stunning. One “money shot” is of Ocean Ramsey getting a tow from a Great White. Another is Andrea Moller standing on her paddle board a few feet from the giant tail of a whale.

You can watch She Is Ocean on October 16 in a virtual screening from the Balboa, the Vogue and the Rafael in the Bay Area.