The Wavescape Surf and Ocean Festival will feature a lineup of 19 films at the Durban International Film Festival (DIFF). Wavecape will also bring  Slide Night, featuring talks by ocean thought leaders on a wide range of topics – including science, sustainability, adventure and activism – to its program of films to be screened at DIFF from July 21 to 26, 2019.

Wavescape announced several blockbuster documentaries for DIFF, including Andy Irons: Kissed by God and Trouble: The Lisa Andersen Story.

The award-winning Cape Town big wave movie Satori, as well as the Mikey February classic Can’t Steal Our Vibe, and two other short films will be screened on opening night at the Bay of Plenty in Durban on Sunday July 21.

Several African premieres will be screened, including How to Learn How to Surf, a hilarious spoof of surf culture fresh off its world premiere in the US. Thank You Mother features South Africa and Australia, and is narrated by Australian filmmaker Albert Falzon, who made the seminal 1970 surf film Morning of the Earth.

Wavescape will also present the African premiere of White Rhino, featuring gigantic waves in Hawaii, Tahiti, and Fiji; along with Nordurland, the other premiere, that was shot in the Arctic Circle, and will no doubt have Durban surfers running for their wetsuits, which they do when water temperatures drop below 28 degrees Celsius.

Other films include the ode to the ocean, Emocean, filmed in Australia, California and Hawaii and featuring conservationist Sacha Guggenheimer, Pipeline surfing legend Jamie O’Brien, big wave pioneer Jeff Clark, iconic surf filmmaker Paul Witzig, and Hawaiian photographer Brent Bielmann.

Transcending Waves, directed by the Gauchos del Mar brothers Julian and Joaquin Azulay, who will be in attendance, features a sweeping epic shot in the Falkland Islands, where they try to use surfing to help heal the scars created by the 1982 War between Britain and Argentina.