The Newport Beach Film Festival will be hosting the world premiere of Opper Films’ Secrets of Desert Point, a film that documents the discovery, evolution and exploitation of a legendary surf break in remote Indonesia almost 40 years ago. Here’s the pitch:
In the early eighties, while sailing off remote Lombok Island in Indonesia, young California surfer Bill Heick and his friends (dubbed the “Golden Beards”) stumbled across the perfect wave…a pristine barreling left reeling endlessly and empty over a shallow, live-coral reef. As treacherous as it was beautiful, it was later dubbed “Desert Point” for its dry forbidding nature. In the years that followed, a pioneer crew of hardcore surfers set up a makeshift beach outpost and kept their treasure off the surf-media map for almost a decade. Their mission: to surf uncrowded Desert Point at the highest level possible…no matter the cost. . . But Paradise, they quickly found, came at a price.
For the rest of the story, follow the jump, or better yet, check out the film when it premieres Monday, April 24, 2017 at 5:15 pm, at The Triangle 3 Theatre in Costa Mesa, California.
Opper Films Presents “Secrets Of Desert Point”
World Premiere at the Newport Beach Film Festival,
April 24, 5;15 pm At The Triangle 3 Theatre, Costa Mesa
“No talk, no maps, no photos… we became really good liars.”
—Bill Heick, Desert Point pioneer.
Solana Beach, CA—In the early eighties, while sailing off remote Lombok Island in Indonesia, young California surfer Bill Heick and his friends (dubbed the “Golden Beards”) stumbled across the perfect wave…a pristine barreling left reeling endlessly and empty over a shallow, live-coral reef. As treacherous as it was beautiful, it was later dubbed “Desert Point” for its dry forbidding nature. In the years that followed, a pioneer crew of hardcore surfers set up a makeshift beach outpost and kept their treasure off the surf-media map for almost a decade. Their mission: to surf uncrowded Desert Point at the highest level possible…no matter the cost.
But Paradise, they quickly found, came at a price. Camping rough on the beach for months at a time was far from an idyllic vacation and came with its own set of annoyances, malaise and outright danger. Life on the remote point was a constant balancing act between the surfing dream and the very real possibility of injury, armed robbery and life-threatening disease. But the siren’s call of the Perfect Wave held strong and has kept the pioneers, and the thousands who have followed, returning to “Deserts” for decades.
“We were so fortunate to have had this once-in-a-lifetime experience at Desert Point during its golden era,” says Bill. “…and this documentary is for all those who have experienced Desert Point in one way or another over the years.”
Since its discovery more than 40 years ago Desert Point has evolved into a hardcore surf destination with low-budget accommodations and quality warung-style food. But embedded within Bill’s story is the grassroots history of early ragtag Indonesian surf exploration of the 1970s. Beginning in Bali in the mid 1970s, we follow Bill’s journey of halcyon days at Kuta Beach and Uluwatu followed by sailing expeditions to neighboring islands in slow, leaking local boats.
It’s also the legacy of California counterculture adventure…one spanning three generations of filmmakers beginning late 1940s San Francisco. Rare Indonesian surf footage shot by Bill Heick’s father William R. Heick, a renowned ethnographic filmmaker who came out of the 1950s San Francisco bohemian arts scene. This fragile 16mm footage, shot more than 40 years ago, has sat in obscurity until recently retrieved and restored.
“This project was a surf filmmaker’s dream production says Secrets’ director Ira Opper, “It is one of the last great dirtbag adventures of the 20th Century… with untold stories, never-seen exotic film imagery, and a perfect wave.”
“Secrets of Desert Point” will have its world theatrical premiere at the upcoming Newport Beach Film Festival Sunday, April 24th at 5:15 pm, at The Triangle 3 Theatre, Costa Mesa.
For festival and screening info: https://www.newportbeachfilmfest.com/event/secrets-of-desert-point/
To watch official trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVd_iKp8ziQ
Secrets will be available digitally on www.TheSurfNetwork.com
Special thanks to our promotional partner Ben Carlson Memorial & Scholarship Foundation of Newport Beach.
IN LATE BREAKING NEWS: “Secrets…” has just been accepted into the San Diego Surf Festival for its San Diego and surf-film-festival premiere: http://www.sandiegosurffilmfestival.com
