Thursday, September 17, 2009

Searching for Michael Peterson: Indie Film About Legendary Surfer


SEARCHING FOR MICHAEL PETERSON:
DOCUMENTARY ON LEGENDARY AUSTRALIAN SURFER
ANNOUNCES PREMIERE U.S. SCREENING TOUR


The hit independent film about Australia’s cult surfing hero, SEARCHING FOR MICHAEL PETERSON announces its United States screening tour during September and October 2009.

Please view the movie trailer here: http://www.vimeo.com/4417017

On Friday September 25th, 2009, SEARCHING FOR MICHAEL PETERSON will screen on the opening night at the prestigious New York Surf Film Festival and then in old-school surf film tradition, it will screen up and down the east and west coasts. Dates are listed below.

Michael Peterson ruled the surf scene throughout the early to mid-1970s with his savage, groundbreaking surfing. An undiagnosed schizophrenic, Michael couldn’t handle the fame his surfing powers attracted, and he retreated into a world of hard drugs, fast cars and shadows. He eventually hit rock bottom after a car chase, which took 35 police cars to stop him. It's an intoxicating and addictive tale for anyone who has ever felt like a fish out of water. “The story of Michael Peterson makes Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas look like Alice In Wonderland.” Describes Peterson biographer, Sean Doherty.

Director, Jolyon Hoff recalls when he first heard about the surfing enigma,

“As a teenager, my friends and I would drive our cars up the Australian coast to places like Seal Rocks or Angourie or Lennox Head and Byron Bay. The trips were all about growing up – there were girls, drunken nights, experiments with drugs, warm water and beautiful waves. We were after the surf but it was often the other unexpected things that happened along the way that became the highlight of the trip – stories to be endlessly recounted on our next trip.”

Hoff continues, “It was on these trips that I first heard, from the older surfers we met, the stories of Michael Peterson, this mysterious character and incredible surfer. We’d sit around the campfire and they would speak with reverence while we listened in awe. It was like a surfing ghost story in many ways.”

“Years later, I decided to throw the boards on the roof and the cameras in the boot and head out to the point breaks, beaches and carparks to capture all these wild, weird and mysterious stories.”

SEARCHING FOR MICHAEL PETERSON features original footage of Peterson’s life as well as interviews with his friends and surfing rivals. The 55 minute documentary has already achieved success and stellar reviews, selling out 25 shows in Australia, screening at the Greenroom Festival in Japan, the Surfilm Festibal in Spain and sold out shows throughout the UK, including London, Brighton, Cornwall and Wales. It has been invited to screen at the Australian Centre of the Moving Image as part of the Australian Perspectives program.

SEARCHING FOR MICHAEL PETERSON is available to purchase ($30 USD plus postage) through http://searchingformichaelpeterson.com

Adding a special touch to the U.S. tour is Australian singer/songwriter Beau Young (2 x world champion surfer) in concert. Beau retired from professional surfing in 2003 to focus on a fulltime career in music. He has gone on to record 2 albums and performed at many of Australia’s most respected music festivals and toured through Japan and Europe. Beau has an obvious affinity with the film and story of Michael Peterson, being the son of one of the world’s most recognized and famous surfers (and Peterson’s predecessor), Nat Young. This will be Beau’s first official U.S. tour.

About Michael Peterson

For five glorious years “MP” led Australia’s charge into the shortboard era and won virtually every event he contested, including three Bells Beach Pros back to back. His brilliant surfing provided the centerpiece for Albert Falzon’s Morning of the Earth film in 1972, and MP never looked back. His final tour victory, at the inaugural Stubbies Pro at Burleigh Heads in 1977, is regarded as the high point of the early professional era. Increased erratic behavior and paranoia led to an infamous car chase with police, which landed him in jail. He was later diagnosed with schizophrenia in 1982.

Thirty years on, MP is still vitally interested in the sport and culture of surfing and is a fixture at most Queensland events, enjoying the action with his mother, Joan. He is rightly regarded as an iconic figure in Australian surfing, and Jolyon Hoff’s film, while it pulls no punches, is an intensely moving tribute to the man.

Surfing pro, Kelly Slater once commented, “You are better than me, MP.”

Surfer Magazine ranks Michael as the #16 all-time greatest surfer in the world. Click here to view the article: http://surfermag.com/features/onlineexclusives/number_16_michael_peterson/

SCREENING DATES (more dates to be announced soon)

FRI. 9/25 NEW YORK SURF FILM FESTIVAL / OPENING NIGHT/ TRIBECA
MON. 9/28 ROCKAWAY BEACH, NY – THE TAP AND GRILL
THURS. 10/01 VIRGINIA BEACH, VA – WATERMAN’S SURFSIDE GRILLE
FRI. 10/02 ASBURY PARK, NJ – THE CAROUSEL BUILDING
WED. 10/07 SAN FRANCISCO, CA – VICTORIA THEATER
THU. 10/08 SANTA CRUZ, CA – VETERANS MEMORIAL BUILDING
FRI. 10/09 SAN LUIS OBISPO, CA – LA PERLA DEL MAR CHAPEL
THU. 10/15 VENICE BEACH, CA – THE STRONGHOLD
FRI. 10/16 SANTA BARBARA, CA – VICTORIA HALL THEATRE
SAT. 10/17 LONG BEACH, CA – SHELTER SURF SHOP

For all tour dates, ticketing and venue information go to http://searchingformichaelpeterson.com

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