A documentary featuring one of Kauai’s most beloved figures will soon make its theatrical debut.
“Andy Irons: Kissed By God” is set to have its world premiere on Wednesday in Los Angeles. A premiere showing will take place in Honolulu on May 6.
The film, which is released by extreme sports media company Teton Gravity Research based in Wyoming, will be shown on Kauai during its one-night theatrical showing nationwide on May 31.
“It’s been a long few years making the movie, and it’s been a rollercoaster,” said Lyndie Irons, Irons’ widow, in a phone interview Saturday. “I think it’s part of the grieving process. It’s actually helped me tremendously … it actually made me start to deal with his death because I was a new mom the first few years. But right now at this moment, I’m pretty anxious and I just hope everybody has a little bit better understanding of who Andy was, which was an amazing person but had also fought some demons, too.”
The documentary aims to tell the untold story of Irons, a native of Kauai’s North Shore who is regarded as one of the world’s most prolific surfers.
The project, three years in the making, doesn’t pull punches in telling the whole truth, said co-director Steve Jones in a phone interview Wednesday.
“Obviously, Andy’s story is a complex one. I think it required that level of attention and detail and research,” Jones said. “We had met with Lyndie in November of ‘14, just a pre thing as she started getting ready to want to make this film and for people to open up about it and want to talk about it. Then I believe in February of 2015 is when we started doing pre-interviews and things like that.”
The film highlights Irons’ rise to becoming a three-time world champion but also sheds light on his struggles with bipolar disorder and opioid addiction leading up to his untimely death in 2010.
It features in-depth interviews with Lyndie Irons, brother Bruce Irons and surfers Joel Parkinson, Nathan Fletcher, Sunny Garcia and Kelly Slater.
“For me, that was the hardest part — the interviews,” Lyndie Irons said. “I kept all of Andy’s personal, everything he had going on personal, I kept it closest to myself. I never talked about his bipolar issues or his addictions, nothing like that. I was never able to talk about it. I always kept that to myself. To actually be able to talk about it and let it out was healing for myself.”
Jones said the film would have never been made without the backing of Bruce and Lyndie.
“Just to be able to have that access to the family and Andy’s friends and competitors, we had really good, positive reinforcement help from Bruce and Lyndie both,” Jones said. “Anybody that had seen some of the more radical darkness that Andy had struggled with … they (Bruce and Lyndie) would say, ‘Tell them everything. We want the truth.’ They wanted the truth to come out and there was no need to censor anything, and we wanted to get the full story out. It was touching, very emotional and enlightening all at once.”
He added: “We are incredibly and thankful to have been given the opportunity. For people to have committed to that level and spoke with that level of honesty, we know it wasn’t easy. So, we’re just beyond grateful.”
After the premiere screenings, the film will then tour around the country through June, and its digital release will take place sometime in the fall.
“The time to tell Andy’s story is now, not because we want to glorify his life or accomplishments, but because Andy wanted to share the truth of his struggles to educate future generations,” Bruce Irons said in a news release. “We wanted to share the whole story — both the struggles and the triumphs — and give intimate insight as to who Andy was as a whole.”
Slater added in the release: “Andy was an absolutely gifted individual. I am lucky to have known him and had the times we had together. He was the most intense competitor I’ve ever known and one of the most sensitive people.”
Info: www.tetongravity.com/films/andy-irons-kissed-by-god
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Nick Celario, sports writer, can be reached at 245-0437 or ncelario@thegardenisland.com.
Interesting surfer. I heard about Irons when he was 17 years old. Irony of this whole career of Andy is that I heard of him at age 17. It was not much, but he was one of them at the Billabong pro pipeline masters on Oahu. Already at the top of his game. How was this an Irony? He became known at an early age and at a time in surfing history where icons were being unknowns. Namely one Gerry Lopez, former founder or director of the tournament. Not important names tossed around, yet pivotal in the making in local sports. Sunny Garcia. Well known local man defying all odds and beating every other local guy in surfing. Irony, at a time when surfing was not important to many grown ups already. Forgotten sport or just not it.
If you have to take drugs to do what you do, and if those drugs ultimately kill you, there’s nothing heroic about this dude’s story.
I knew the Iron family when Andy was just,learning to surf at the pier and then pine trees, right in front of his house…. he was a sweet,and,cute kid who called me AUNTY and would take my hand to the beach to point out the best surf spots…
RIP and MAHALO To the Irons!!!