Intentio

Intentio - A film by Loïc Wirth from ASSA Filmes on Vimeo.

Have you seen Intentio yet?  You really should, it will blow your hair back.

Released earlier on this year, it is the first feature length offering from insanely talented young Brazilian film maker Loic Wirth.  A wandering, poetic and visually striking piece of cinema, Wirth featured a slew of South American surfing talent alongside a fair smattering of some of the most exciting international big players who do airs and barrels these days.  Locations are ambiguous, a big feat to pull off these days in a world where many of us are bombarded with images of surf spots to the point of instant recognition, and one that highlights the surfing and the beauty of the backgrounds rather than ticking off a world tour check-list.

Mr Loic Wirth, image courtesy of Surfing Magazine.

It just so happens that Loic and I share a mutual friend (I lived and worked with one of his childhood friends in South Africa a few years ago), so I got in touch with him and fired a few questions his way.  His eloquent answers provide a really interesting insight into the creative process that led Loic to produce such a visually engaging and ethereal look at surfing in this day and age.  Check it:

- What route did you take to becoming a surf film-maker and producing Intentio?

There wasn't really a route.Things just happened by little life coincidences that put me in the same path of Pietro França, who was the first person to put a camera in my hands.  I had never filmed before, and never thought about it, I liked to edit for fun but had no clue why would I start filming.  But I fell in love with it.

- Intentio looks set to be the first critically acclaimed surf movie in a while to champion the surfers and waves of South America outside of the focus of the WQS and 'CT. Did you set out to wave the flag for your part of the world?

Not at all.  The persons on the film are the ones who I crossed paths and exchanged some ideas about the movie and believed in those ideas.  A lot of those guys are the reason this film came to life, they helped me going through a lot of the traveling and would always find a room on the floor for me to sleep.  But never for country reasons, it was all about the personalities.

- You've used a whole range of ambiguous locations in the movie and created something of a "fantasy" surf destination. What was the reasoning behind creating this mystique?

To achieve the goal I was aiming for visually, I decided to not really mind mixing locations or surfers.  I didn't want Intentio to be session based, location based or surfer based.  If anything, I guess I wanted it to be message based.  It's all the same world.

- There's a very strong aesthetic to Intentio. Do you feel that thoughtful foregrounds and backdrops or choice of colours in boards and clothing are lacking in a lot of recent surf imagery? Why is this? How and why did you choose not to conform?

Im not really sure how to answer that.  I guess there is a lot of everything out there nowadays.  From people giving focus to the backdrops, or clothing or other details.  I think as long as it is sincere, not for the others to approve, then the rest is a consequence.

- Did you set out with the intention of sharing a particular message with your film, or did you let Intentio develop organically?

There isn't really one message.  My goal was to share something positive.  To instigate whoever would like to be instigated, to question things.  Not to essentially act, but at least question, and let the act come naturally if needed.  The message is that there is no universal message, it's all so personal, it's all in ourselves, I just wanted to bring that out.

Intentio's UK premiere was at the London Surf Film Festival back in October.  Loic unfortunately couldn't make it, so I fired off a few shots to show him the packed room of his people who turned out to enjoy his movie.

The curtain goes up...

Golden Ticket (Thanks to Chris and Demi from LS/FF)

Chris Nelson introducing Intentio

Intentio premiered to a full theatre of hooting surfers on the festival's final night.

Go buy Intentio here, it's well worth it.