Alien Invaders, Psychedelic Sound, & Dystopian Worlds Collide In New Film

SURFER: How did you get into filmmaking? What else have you worked on in the past?
Justin Kohlberg: I think originally it was my Opa that inspired me. He was the one in the family that always had a super 8 camera filming my mom and her siblings, making home movies, filming my brother and I and my cousins and making up little skits for us to act out too. He had a movie club in Dallas in the 70s with his friends where they would do comedy skits, screen films for their friends, have some friends over, that kind of thing. When I was in high school he gave me his old Bolex H8 and even though film for it was hard to come by at the time, it gave me a lot of ideas for making films and art projects from there. My friends growing up were all surfers, skaters, and musicians- I skated a bit but was always drawn more towards filming them and making videos since they all shredded way harder than me!

SURFER: Can you share a bit about the origin of this project? Were you always drawn to 16mm or is that something new for this film?
JK: It started around 2020 actually- I felt pretty uninspired by a lot of the surf content out at the time, the ultra-shred, shortboard forward, maximalist sort of aesthetic really didn’t appeal to me. I wanted to make something that was more a reflection of the films that inspired me as a kid-movies like Sprout, September Sessions, Five Summer Stories, Shelter- movies like those where surfing was presented in a way that seemed much more inviting to a variety of audiences, where it was about joy, living a beautiful life, experimenting, and most importantly having fun. I’d been shooting digitally alot but had been wanting to get into 16mm for a while, so I got a Bolex H16 around 2018 or so and started messing around a bit. By the time I had a vision of what the film would be, we couldn’t travel really to shoot anything so we ended up recording the soundtrack first at Tiny Telephone in Oakland, which is a really great spot. Cut to 2023 and a filmmaker pal of mine Octavio Coutiño invited me on a trip to Puerto to shoot 16mm for a commercial.

I ended up meeting most of the surfers on that trip that are in my film-Sebastian Williams, Jhonny Corzo, Kalama Stratton, the Donnanno brothers, Gael Jimenez- talented crew. I talked to them about it and was able to shoot a good amount on that first trip. I came back a few more times to get more footage of Kalama, and then it kind of just evolved from there. 

SURFER: What inspired the creative direction you took? 
JK: One movie that really blew my mind was Holy Mountain. It’s still one of the most inspiring movies to me- also at the time I was watching a lot of 70’s sci-fi B movies- alien invaders, psychedelic soundtracks, dystopian worlds, Spaghetti westerns, stuff like that. 

It’s always been a thing to me to make something you would want to watch that doesn’t exist in the world yet, and I realized the combination of a psychedelic alien movie with surfing didn’t really exist so I wanted to make one. It felt like an avenue where I could stretch myself creatively and find something unique in there. I wanted it to be the kind of film that anyone could enjoy-whether you surf or not-and I think those kinds of films really inspired the vignettes, the subtext of good vs evil, the aliens, and the soundtrack too for sure. 

SURFER: All in all, how long did you work on this? Any specific moments that stand out to you and you want to share? Or, anything that you think people should know about what it takes to make a project like this?
JK: It took about 5 years in total to make. Since it was a passion project of mine, I’d have to put it away for a few months at a time and come back to it when I could in between working on other people’s films, commercial work, music videos, film scores, recording and producing at my studio in LA, touring work, and alot else that comes with being a freelance creative. I think the most important thing is if you have an idea for a project, just make it, finish it, share it with people. Don’t waste time overthinking it and being a perfectionist about it. It’s worth so much more to experiment, try things, improve your skills as you go, and get things out of your head (and off your computer!) so you can move on to the next piece from there. 

SURFER: Wise words! Anything else you'd like to share or shout outs you'd like to give?
JK: Thanks to everyone that was involved with making this film, it was truly a labour of love and I feel very lucky to have so many talented friends to work with on this one. We’ll be releasing the soundtrack very soon so stay tuned for that as well. The film is streaming now via Nobody Surf, go check it out!