Bondi (1979)

Overview

“One day at the beach…a typically Australian day…something I really looked forward to, when I first came here as a migrant (Bondi was the first surfing beach I’d ever seen). In the early ’60s there was hardly a weekend I didn’t go to the beach. But it wasn’t until many, many years later that I was filmically advanced enough to make a film about it. The simplicity of just turning the camera on and letting people do what they wanted to in front of the lends appealed to me…the carefree atmosphere appealed to me…the carefree atmosphere of the beach captured with the innocence of early cinema. I didn’t even look through the lens. Shooting horizontal mattes allowed me to play with the density of what was going on…the surreality of the beach, the waves of water and people, the hot and cold of sun and surf, overexposure…heat rising up, surfers riding waves in the sky and into buildings, seagulls ducking beneath the mattes, then re-appearing.” (Paul Winkler)