With contributions from Designated Survivor actor Mark Deklin and Emma Thompson, we’re just getting started. Our latest surprise is a beautiful short video from acclaimed film director Tamra Davis.
Tamra Davis is known for directing music videos for artists like Sonic Youth, The Smiths, The Beastie Boys and the Bangles, and directed films like Half Baked and Billy Madison. Since women account for just 7% of directors in Hollywood on top grossing films, her success is that much more impressive.
We asked Tamra to create a short film inspired by one of her favorite books. Tamra built her film around a passage from Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life, by William Finnegan to celebrate freedom of speech. Hailed by the New York Times as “breathtaking and original,” Barbarian Days is known for its accurate insightful portrait of the surfing life by a writer who really surfed. Davis reads a passage from the book about the perfect wave juxtaposed with gorgeous shots of surfing and wild waves on a nearby beach. The resulting short film is arresting and meditative, and reminds us of the power not only of words but of nature itself. Watch it and let yourself be renewed and inspired in your creative and political endeavors.