{"id":51243,"date":"2017-04-13T13:46:06","date_gmt":"2017-04-13T20:46:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.boardistan.com\/?p=51243"},"modified":"2017-04-14T09:03:04","modified_gmt":"2017-04-14T16:03:04","slug":"secrets-of-desert-point-world-premiere","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.boardistan.com\/?p=51243","title":{"rendered":"Secrets of Desert Point World Premiere"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"450\" height=\"253\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/NVd_iKp8ziQ\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>The Newport Beach Film Festival<\/strong> will be hosting the world premiere of <strong>Opper Films&#8217; <em>Secrets of Desert Point<\/em><\/strong>, a film that documents the&nbsp;discovery, evolution and exploitation of a legendary surf break in remote Indonesia almost 40 years ago. Here&#8217;s the pitch:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>In the early eighties, while sailing off remote Lombok Island in Indonesia, young California surfer Bill Heick and his friends (dubbed the \u201cGolden Beards\u201d) stumbled across the perfect wave\u2026a pristine barreling left reeling endlessly and empty over a shallow, live-coral reef. As treacherous as it was beautiful, it was later dubbed \u201cDesert Point\u201d 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\u2026no matter the cost. . .&nbsp;But Paradise, they quickly found, came at a price.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Opper Films Presents \u201cSecrets Of Desert Point\u201d<\/p>\n<p>World Premiere at the Newport Beach Film Festival,<br \/>\nApril 24, 5;15 pm At The Triangle 3 Theatre, Costa Mesa<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo talk, no maps, no photos\u2026 we became really good liars.\u201d<br \/>\n\u2014Bill Heick, Desert Point pioneer.<\/p>\n<p>Solana Beach, CA\u2014In the early eighties, while sailing off remote Lombok Island in Indonesia, young California surfer Bill Heick and his friends (dubbed the \u201cGolden Beards\u201d) stumbled across the perfect wave\u2026a pristine barreling left reeling endlessly and empty over a shallow, live-coral reef. As treacherous as it was beautiful, it was later dubbed \u201cDesert Point\u201d 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\u2026no matter the cost.<\/p>\n<p>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\u2019s call of the Perfect Wave held strong and has kept the pioneers, and the thousands who have followed, returning to \u201cDeserts\u201d for decades.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We were so fortunate to have had this once-in-a-lifetime experience at Desert Point during its golden era,\u201d says Bill. \u201c\u2026and this documentary is for all those who have experienced Desert Point in one way or another over the years.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>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\u2019s story is the grassroots history of early ragtag Indonesian surf exploration of the 1970s. Beginning in Bali in the mid 1970s, we follow Bill\u2019s journey of halcyon days at Kuta Beach and Uluwatu followed by sailing expeditions to neighboring islands in slow, leaking local boats.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s also the legacy of California counterculture adventure\u2026one spanning three generations of filmmakers beginning late 1940s San Francisco. Rare Indonesian surf footage shot by Bill Heick\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis project was a surf filmmaker&#8217;s dream production says Secrets\u2019 director Ira Opper, \u201cIt is one of the last great dirtbag adventures of the 20th Century\u2026 with untold stories, never-seen exotic film imagery, and a perfect wave.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSecrets of Desert Point\u201d 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.<\/p>\n<p>For festival and screening info: https:\/\/www.newportbeachfilmfest.com\/event\/secrets-of-desert-point\/<\/p>\n<p>To watch official trailer: https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=NVd_iKp8ziQ<\/p>\n<p>Secrets will be available digitally on www.TheSurfNetwork.com<\/p>\n<p>Special thanks to our promotional partner Ben Carlson Memorial &amp; Scholarship Foundation of Newport Beach.<\/p>\n<p>IN LATE BREAKING NEWS: \u201cSecrets\u2026\u201d has just been accepted into the San Diego Surf Festival for its San Diego and surf-film-festival premiere: http:\/\/www.sandiegosurffilmfestival.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Newport Beach Film Festival will be hosting the world premiere of Opper Films&#8217; Secrets of Desert Point, a film that documents the&nbsp;discovery, evolution and exploitation of a legendary surf break in remote Indonesia almost 40 years ago. Here&#8217;s the pitch: In the early eighties, while sailing off remote Lombok Island in Indonesia, young California [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,28],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.boardistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51243"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.boardistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.boardistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.boardistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.boardistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=51243"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.boardistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51243\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51246,"href":"http:\/\/www.boardistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51243\/revisions\/51246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.boardistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=51243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.boardistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=51243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.boardistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=51243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}