Capturing The Spirit

1972's Morning Of The Earth isn't just a surf film, it's a vital piece of Australian art that speaks of a relationship between the Australian surf culture, rock'n'roll and mother nature, a hallowed film for surfers around the globe with a soundtrack considered to be one of the great records of its era. So, when its creator Alby Falzon asked fellow surf filmmaker Andrew Kidman to make something of a follow-up piece, Kidman was not keen.

“It wasn't my idea,” he says firmly. “When they first asked me to do it, I didn't want to do it. I just didn't think you could do it, I thought it would be sacrilege, but Alby thought it might be worth exploring what a modern day take on it might be.”

Eventually Kidman's arm was twisted enough to take on the task and Spirit Of Akasha, a film exploring the concept of akasha – an idea relating to aether that's essence is simple but unbelievably complex to explain – was born. “I started thinking about it and had a few different ideas I put forward to Warner – I wasn't gonna do it unless I could do it how I wanted to – and they were really happy with what I was putting forth,” Kidman continues. “It's hard when you're working with big record companies; you're never really sure which way they're gonna push you but all they did was help facilitate it and make it as good as it could be. People say that's a rare thing, but that's my only experience with them and it was a really good experience – they let me and Alby do whatever we wanted and then helped us bring it to where it got to.”

Music was an enormous part of this project. The likes of Brian Wilson, Pond, Xavier Rudd and Kidman's own The Windy Hills wrote songs for the project, with many of them then turning around and recording a cover of a MOTE track for a separate reimagined version of that iconic soundtrack. “Rarely do you get to work with music like that, especially when it's made for the film,” Kidman says. Sydney Festival attendees will get to see plenty of the score performed live at the Sydney Opera House. “It's a pretty remarkable project to pull that many artists together and make a soundtrack like that. Not only did all the artists submit original songs, they also covered the original soundtrack. I think that just shows how revered the original movie was.”

Kidman has nothing but praise for the way the musicians involved interacted with both the film and his suggestions. “I pretty much talked to all of the artists about what we wanted and then we went back and forth customising stuff. They would send stuff through and we would listen to it and suggest things they might be able to do to tune it more to suit the film – it was a pretty involved process.”

Kye Fitzgerald is of good pedigree; his father Terry is a legendary shaper, master of the single fin and all things Indonesia, and his brother Joel is a kick-arse surfer in his own right. When approached to be a part of Spirit Of Akasha, Fitzgerald had no qualms. “I was feeling like I was reaching a peak in a lot of ways,” he explains. “I'd been focusing on my single fin surfing for close to a decade and was starting to feel I was taking it as far as I could've. I know how influential this movie's going to be and to be a part of it makes me feel like I'm reaching the top of the mountain as far as my single fin surfing goes.”

The spirit that runs through MOTE captivated Fitzgerald as a young man. “The pure spirit that it has, it really resonated with me,” he says. “It really captures that kind of freedom and escapism that surfing is about. It still inspires so many people young and old – it's amazing how it crosses so many demographics. It was made with a certain amount of purity.”

When being filmed for something like Spirit Of Akasha, Fitzgerald says there's no such thing as stage fright. If there was, he says, the footage would suffer. “I have a lot of confidence in my surfing and what I'm doing; some will like it and some won't – so what? How is that gonna help you surf the way you want to surf? And that's not what Andrew and [surf photographer] Jon Frank are looking for, they're looking for the way you surf every day. Whether it's a stormy day or a perfect day, it's not always about perfection, even though we're all striving for that in our surfing, it's about letting go and just surfing.”