James McMillan: Yonder via Waterlogged

Monday, April 12, 2010

Yonder via Waterlogged

The Dear & Yonder film showing at the Byron Community Centre was a successful night thanks to the organisers from Waterlogged events, keen logger Vanessa Thompson and her biz partner, artist Tracy Brown. Everything you'd love was there including film, music and art. One thing that was missing was Kath from 'food by Kath'. At the last one of these nights she homemade the fresh Chai and organic juice, but this time we missed her cause she was a lil' sick. Dallas Chong from The Grains turned up and played some cool acoustic while the 80 or so gathered guests listened in and checked out the art I had on display.

First up on the big screen was The Blue Yonder short film, which Mick Waters and I made back in 2004. Tracy introduced the whole show and then called me down to say a few words to the crowd about my film, which was cool cause I got to explain how and why the Blue Yonder short film came about. The short and sweet of it is; I released the Blue Yonder Short Film in 2005 as a companion to my book, Blue Yonder, a journey into the heart of surf culture.

I met Mick Waters through Andrew Kidman along the Blue Yonder discovery trail back in 2001. He was keen to document what I was pursuing with my book. We got together and surfed and talked. The loose idea we worked off was the true story of mine; believing in something enough to turn your back on the seemingly futile, and instead, open up to adventure and discovery. Six months later we ended up with a cinematic journey of surfing sequences, lifestyle images, voiceovers and some soul-touching music from Andrew Kidman. Film locations were NSW Central Coast, Byron Shire and Indonesia. The film is a revealing glimpse at one alternative surfing journey, that hasn’t yet finished. Surfers included are: James McMillan, Derek Hynd, Ozzie Wright & Andrew Kidman. contact me on macjimmymac@yahoo.com if you'd like a copy for $15 incl postage. Thanks Waterlogged :-)