Z365" or "Festival all year round" is the new strategic point of the Festival in which converge investigation, accompaniment and development of new talents (Ikusmira Berriak, Nest); training and cinematic knowledge transfer (Elías Querejeta Zine Eskola, Zinemaldia + Plus, Filmmakers' dialogue); and investigation, disclosure and cinematic thought (Z70 project, Thought and Discussion and Research and publications).
It’s the end of September and Maui is still firmly in summer-mode. That means relentless trade winds and only the beginning of hope for the new winter swells to come. This time of year, Kai Lenny is normally just training for another SUP race, but this year he is also focused on the WSL Big Wave World Tour. Kai has space in the Pauwela Cannery where he does his R&D work and he stores his SUP Race Boards and now, Big Wave Guns.
In May, the Poor Boyz Productions took over the warehouse space to do the final edit on Kai’s film, Paradigm Lost. Pauwela Cannery is the hub of the surf industry on Maui, an artistic space in an industrial setting. The space is a dark cavern with no cell-service and no windows, the perfect place for editing. We pushed Kai’s race and big wave boards aside to make room for desks and computers.
During the edit process, which took 7 people more than 90 days, we talked about the boards and how they represented something we needed to have in the film. We needed to show how Kai is always looking to evolve what he does in the ocean. In Paradigm Lost, Kai shares incredible sessions with World Champions in big waves, progressive surfing, kite surfing, windsurfing and SUP– and shows the endless possibilities that come with a wide open mind.
Poor Boyz Productions has been filming Kai since he was 8 years old and in that time he’s gone from focusing on windsurfing, to SUP, kiting, surfing and now fully hookedon the foil. Kai has made an impact on numerous water sports with his athletic prowess, but what he has done with the development of the foil is truly groundbreaking and new. ‘I wanted to take something like walking up a hill and make it feel like skateboarding down a hill.’ – Kai.
The world has been watching, if the millions of views on Kai’s viral videos are any indication. Foiling has been around for nearly 50 years but why now are some of the best pure surfers in the world trying to foil too? Kai just makes it look fun.
Filmed over three years, in six countries, Paradigm Lost captures the highest level of water sports action in beautiful 4K. In between the action are heartfelt stories of the characters at the top of their sports.
THIERRY DUPIN