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Ritrattidi Surf (Surf Portraits) is a surf movie / documentary about surfers, shapers and artists connected to the Italian surf scene. The footage was shot between 2011 and 2013 by the Onde Nostre Crew firstly as a web series, before it was condensed into a shorter documentary film.

Can you surf in Italy?, is one of the questions that local Italian surfers are most often asked. Ritratti di Surf is a movie / documentary that tries to give an answer to that question through interviews.

I found this documentary to be interesting and inspiring. The boys document an incredible experience while sharing a much broader environmental message. The cinematic qualities are great, beautiful shots and lighting, even on what seems to have been a small budget. The story is told authentically, there are laughs and frustrations, they show the difficulties of living in a cabin built from driftwood and other waste.

Filmed in beautiful locations in Australia, Cornwall and France, Behind the Tide provides an insight into creative individuals who have forged a living through their passion for surfing. It shows a different perspective on surf culture, focusing on those working independently and outside of the mainstream.

Traveling the world with his longboard, Sam Bleakley uses surfing to explore the brilliant corners of the world highlighting often never before seen coastlines and communities that live at the intersection of travel, culture and surf. Former Longboard Champion Sam Bleakley uses surfing to get under the skin of the coastlines he visits, showcasing emerging local surf cultures, cultural tourism frontiers and capturing the power of surfing for social good. Through interviews, lyrical narrative and beautifully filmed surfing sequences, Sam celebrates surfing as dance, learns about local music, art, food and carnival, and demonstrates how surfing can offer detailed understanding of the changing relationship between cultures and coastlines.

After years of nightmares, depression, and seizures, Iraq war veteran Bobby Lane could see no way out of his trauma other than suicide. Then he met Van Curaza, a former big wave surfer who since founded Operation Surf and dedicated his life to helping veterans find solace in surfing. Backed by a growing body of research demonstrating the healing power of the ocean on the mind and body, organisations such as Operation Surf and the Jimmy Miller Memorial Foundation are using surfing to help veterans cope with physical and mental trauma.

On a trip from north to south, from the most crowded spots to unknown breaks, Peninsula is the tale of a journey to discover and describe where surfing in Italy came from and what it is like nowadays.

Teenage model Cora (played by Disney star Debby Ryan) is the daughter of the head of a major modelling agency and has always worked hard to live up to the expectations of her mother (Danielle Carter). When a damaging video of Cora goes viral she departs for Australia to spend time with her aunt Margot (Genevieve Hegney). Margot is also facing her own difficulties and their time together becomes a learning experience for them both.

Rebellious Brooklyn teen Summer Torres is sent to live with family friends in the tiny town of Shorehaven on the Great Ocean Road, Victoria, AUS. Despite her best efforts, Summer falls in love with the town, the people and the surf.

Told through the powerful narration of a 6-year old boy, Given, follows the life of a traveling family of Legendary surfers Daize and Aamion Goodwin, who values experience over traditional living. As a family, they hop from continent to continent learning about various cultures, finding fun waves, and ultimately growing closer as a family. This film will inspire you to get off the couch and see the world, while making you rethink your personal value system.

"Soul Surfer" is based on the true story of Bethany Hamilton, a champion surfer who in her early teens was attacked by a shark and lost almost all of her left arm. One month later, she was back on a surfboard, has since won several championships and is at age 21 a professional surfer. All of those are remarkable facts.

My problem with "Soul Surfer" is that it makes it look too simple. Bethany (AnnaSophia Robb) has a loving family of professional surfers and a big, friendly dog. She lives in walking distance of the beach. She was and is a committed churchgoer and got great support from her spiritual leaders. She was an indomitable optimist with a fierce competitive spirit.

But there had to be more to it than that. I applaud her faith and spirit. I give her full credit for her determination. I realize she is a great athlete. But I feel something is missing. There had to be dark nights of the soul. Times of grief and rage. The temptation of nihilism. The lure of despair. Can a 13-year-old girl lose an arm and keep right on smiling?

The flaw in the storytelling strategy of "Soul Surfer" is that it doesn't make Bethany easy to identify with. She's almost eerie in her optimism. Her religious faith is so unshaken, it feels taken for granted. The film feels more like an inspirational parable than a harrowing story of personal tragedy.

Even its portrait of her recovery and rehabilitation is perfunctory. There's a particularly unconvincing scene where she's fitted with a prosthetic arm and refuses to wear it. They're making remarkable progress in the field of prosthetics. But the arm that she's offered looks no more useful than the arm that she rips off her Barbie doll the same night (in one of the movie's rare moments of depression).

Because Bethany actually was in the water a month after the attack, there can be no quarrel with those scenes in the film. What I missed was more information about her medical condition. What did her doctors advise? What risks were there to the wound? Having totaled almost a year in three trips through the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, I've known people who lost limbs and I know it's very difficult and complicated. Maybe Bethany was so young and resilient, and in such a happy situation with her family and her church, that it was this easy for her. But the movie feels too simple.

"Soul Surfer" is a wholesome movie, intended as inspirational. Whether it will cheer viewers who are not as capable as Bethany is an excellent question. AnnaSophia Robb is a convincing, cheerful heroine. Dennis Quaid and Helen Hunt, as Bethany's parents, are stalwart and supportive, although the script indeed leaves them with no other choice.

One character I question is Malina Birch (Sonya Balmores), one of Bethany's competitors, who sneers and is mean and does cruel things and, of course, always wears black. Why? Does she know that she has been cast as the villain?

Helen Hunt (Cheri Hamilton, my mom) was an intermediate surfer previously, but she wanted to become a better surfer. Her style of surfing is cruise-y and mellow and it was so fun to watch her gain confidence on slightly larger waves as the days went by!

Then there was a different crew that was out in the water shooting the surfing clips. There were always 3 cameras in these situations. One was on the beach looking towards the surfers, one was on a jet ski following the surfers as they rode the wave, and one was held by a waterman to get close-up action shots from in the water.

Even before the filming started, we were thinking we needed a trip to Tahiti just because the waves are so beautiful and powerful and the surf is just INCREDIBLE there. So when we realized that some of the scenes needed better surfing shots, my family and I pushed for a Tahiti trip with the crew. The trip came together and we went to Tahiti to film me riding some bigger waves. We got some amazing surf down there and I was so stoked! Most of the scenes in Soul Surfer where Bethany is riding larger waves, especially the ones that barrel, were filmed in Tahiti.

After the shots from Tahiti were incorporated into the film, we were much more satisfied with the surfing aspect of the Soul Surfer! The cast, the crew, my family and I were so excited to bring a wholesome, encouraging movie to Hollywood that accurately represented the most beautiful, exciting and indescribable sport of surfing.

P.S. If you like Soul Surfer, check out my documentary UNSTOPPABLE! This captures my life from childhood to motherhood and shows a more unfiltered portrayal of my life! (Both films are available on Netflix and Amazon!)

It makes sense, then, that filmmakers have also long been enthralled by the sport as well. From documentaries to biopics to action movies, surfing has been featured numerous times on screen since it evolved from pastime to phenomenon. Here are 15 of the best ways to hang ten vicariously.

This fascinating documentary tells the tale of Doc Paskowitz, a Stanford-educated man who, along with his young wife, eschewed conventional life to raise his nine children in a camper while following the best surf around the continent. His parenting methods were questionable and his surf-obsessed life perhaps self-serving, but to this day he begs the question: Is it really so crazy to raise a close-knit family more concerned with physical health and spiritual fulfillment than conventional measures of success?

Dana Brown's first solo poject takes a page from the work of his pops, famed surfer and filmmaker Bruce Brown, of The Endless Summer fame. Step Into Liquid has the same affable feel, but is technically far superior (decades of camera advancements may have helped there). When you're a Brown, the bar is set pretty high, and Dana delivered: his film is currently the fifth highest-grossing sports doc of all time.

Though bearded, barefoot and pretty much homeless, the few surfers who lived the "back-to-nature" lifestyle were easily romanticized by Albert Falzon in his first and most well-known flick. It still makes surfers and newbs alike want to quit their jobs, toss their wallets and set up shop on a remote beach. And aside from instilling a wallop of wanderlust, Morning of the Earth is also credited with debuting surf footage of Indonesia's coveted, world-class waves, mostly undocumented until then.

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