Surf Sail
★ 10 · 1978 · 20m · Documentary
A documentary following the attempt by three young people to be the first windsurfers to cross Cook Strait.
More Like This
Les Rugissantes
2025
The epic story of Alexia Barrier and her all-female crew, a team ready to defy time and the elements to conquer the Jules Verne Trophy. This narrative, structured like a countdown, highlights their dedication, resilience, and fight for inclusion in a still largely male-dominated world. More than a sporting challenge, it's a human odyssey where every mile covered brings these women closer to an extraordinary feat.
More info →
The Last Dolphin King
2022 · ★ 6.3
This documentary traces the career of renowned Spanish dolphin trainer José Luis Barbero and the events leading up to his shocking death in 2015.
More info →
Saving Flipper
2009
Our love affair with dolphins began with 'Flipper' and ended in a multi-million dollar industry of abuse. From the dazzling sea shows where dolphins are driven to suicide, to an annual dolphin slaughter in a small cove in Japan, 'Saving Flipper' reveals the nightmare behind the dolphin's indelible smile.
More info →
The Longest Wave
2019
Oscar-nominated filmmaker Joe Berlinger travels the globe with legendary windsurfer and pioneering waterman Robby Naish, a 24-time world champion whose quest to master the world's longest waves unexpectedly reveals his vulnerabilities as a competitor, mentor and father. THE LONGEST WAVE transcends the action sports genre by capturing obstacles outside of the legendary athlete's professional life in an intimate, cinéma-vérité style, revealing Naish balancing the pursuit of excellence at sea with the demands of life's complications on land.
More info →
John Lilly and the Earth Coincidence Control Office
2025 · ★ 6.7
The daring experimenter Dr. John C. Lilly dedicated his life to radical self-investigation and unlocking the mysteries of consciousness and communication. “My body is my laboratory” was the motto, and his research on the language of dolphins and whales – as well as psychedelics and sensory deprivation – assured his own cult status in 20th-century pop culture as the basis for Ken Russel’s Altered States and Mike Nichols’s The Day of the Dolphin. Directors Michael Almareyda and Courtney Stephens, along with narrator Chloë Sevigny, explore the life of a determined scientist and his experiments into the psychonautical unknown.
More info →
Seas the Day: The Sailing Movie
Seas the Day: The Sailing Movie is a genre-defying documentary that blends real-world adventure with deeply human storytelling. It transcends typical sailing documentaries by blending docu-fiction with a narrative inspired by Joseph Campbell’s classic The Hero's Journey. Directed by Ryan Luskin, an anthropologist and teacher, the film follows his family's quest across sixteen countries, learning life skills from diverse cultures.
More info →
Singlehanders
1982 · ★ 9
Follow two Canadians, Bob Lush and Mike Birch, aboard their yachts during the 1980 Observer Singlehanded Transatlantic Race. More than a record of this prestigious international sailing event, the resulting film is the starting point for an epic of challenge and determination.
More info →
Of Boats and Brothers: The Yacht Building Herreshoffs
1995
This award-winning documentary film chronicles the accomplishments and relationship of John and Nathanael Herreshoff. These determined brothers overcame all obstacles, including blindness, to earn a worldwide reputation in yacht design and construction.
More info →
Hold Fast
2008 · ★ 5.3
Stories of maniac sailors, anarchist castaways, and the voyage of the S/V Pestilence: a video zine three friends and I made about finding a derelict sailboat, fixing it up, and sailing from Florida to Haiti.
More info →
Atlantis
1991 · ★ 6.3
Atlantis is filmmaker Luc Besson's celebration of the beauty and wonder of the world beneath the sea, expanding upon themes touched on in his film The Big Blue. Combining stunning underwater cinematography and a hypnotic score by Eric Serra, Besson's singular vision defies dialogue or narrative structure to explore ocean life as you've never seen it before. Following the colossal success of The Big Blue, Luc Besson crisscrossed the world's seas and oceans to film the beauty and diversity of marine life: from the giant octopuses of Vancouver to the manta rays of the Pacific (New Caledonia), and the grey sharks of Tahiti. A film with no actors or sets other than the underwater world. A breathtaking view of marine species: sharks, dolphins, manatees, octopuses. An exploration of the seabed in the Bahamas, the Galapagos, Vancouver, and Tahiti.
More info →