Search - Various Artists :: Present

The Present is the 3rd and newest film from Thomas Campbell, acclaimed surf movie director of The Seedling and Sprout. The Present is yet another look into the wide ranging possibilities of accessing the surfing experience, with a multi-cultural, diverse surf craft and wide range of surfers. Shot primarily in 16mm film on location in West Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Hawaii, California, Sumatra, Java, and Peru. Featuring Dave Rastovich, Dane Reynolds, Joel Tudor, Chelsea Hedges, Kassia Meador, Harrison Roach, Dan Malloy, Devon Howard, C. J. Nelson, Ry Craike, Jacob Stuth, Sofia Mulanovich, Chris Del Moro, Michel Junod, Ian King, Danny Hess, Alex Knost, and Rob Machado among others. With music by; David Axelrod, Bonnie Prince Billy, Mice Parade, The Mattson 2, Cass McCombs, Plants and Animals, Vetiver, The Photographic, Ndabva Kure (featuring Shannon Sol R. Carroll and David Rastovich), Japanese Motors, Gabor Szabo, Ray Barbee & The Mattson 2, Jeff Parker, and Tommy Guerrero. Thomas Campbell is a self-taught painter, photographer, filmmaker, and writer. He spends most of his time traversing the globe on surf trips, making films and shooting photographs, but maintains a small painting studio in Santa Cruz, California. Campbell's artworks combine scribbles and scriptures, taking slogans and anecdotes from his unique vocabulary and juxtaposing them with a profound look at human nature. His movementoriented paintings are as layered with meaning as they are with paint. The works, typically composed of several panels, are free-flowing with wide expressionist swipes of color, bold graphics and intricate renderings of characters and text. His photographs mimic the intensity of the paintings, yet in a more abstract fashion. Black and white documentary works are grouped with images of blurred, vibrant details of life. Campbell has mounted solo exhibitions in New York, Paris, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Morocco. In 1999, he completed his first feature length surfing film, The Seedling, in 2004 released his second, Sprout. He is currently touring with his newest film The Present. He is also creative director for a small, independent record label, Galaxia, which has released records by contemporary artists Tommy Guerrero, Ray Barbee, Peggy Honeywell and Black Heart Procession.