LIHUE — Executive produced by Teresa Tico, a Kauai attorney and award-winning documentary filmmaker, “The Shape of Things: The Dick Brewer Story” will have its Kauai debut on Nov. 1 at the Kauai Community College Performing Arts Center as part of the Hawaii International Film Festival.
The film starts at 6 p.m. with a question and answer period following the film
“The Shape of Things: The Dick Brewer Story” includes Laird Hamilton and Kai Lenny among other celebrated surfers and shapers in the cast of the film that chronicles the life of surfing’s “da Vinci of design.”
Other key people in the cast include American surfer, kiteboarder and former professional skateboarder Allen Sario, surfboard shaper Steve Morgan, Brewer’s widow Sherry and Jim Kempton, co-writer for “The Shape of Things.”
“Directed by four-time Emmy award-winner. cinematographer Bob Campi, ‘The Shape of Things’ is a triumph of story telling that not only informs the viewer of surfing’s unrelenting evolution, but inspires the audience through Brewer’s dedication to pushing the limits of what is possible in surfing, and in life itself,” Tico said.
A longtime Kauai resident, Brewer passed away peacefully at his home in Princeville on Mar. 29, 2022.
“The Shape of Things” dives into the mysterious and roller coaster life of Brewer at the forefront of a burgeoning surf culture in the 1960s and 1970s, Tico said. Brewer’s brilliant mind and engineering innovations inspired a revolution in surfboard design.
“He was the guru, the man on the mountain, the shaper everybody knelt down before,” said surf historian Matt Warshaw. “Figuratively, mostly, but I think maybe literally, too. Incredible guns just Sabrejet-level equipment for North Shore surfers in the 60s and 70s.”
Brewer’s career pushed the limits of big wave surfing as his fame rose to the top of the pyramid.
Then, his life took a tragic turn when a car accident on Maui resulted in the death of his son and severe injuries to his daughter and himself.
The event led to years of self-examination and isolation. Brewer emerged with a revolutionary design that changed the sport forever. He raised the bar again with his invention of the tow board in the 1990s — an innovation that unlocked the secrets of riding massive swells never before attempted.
Ticket purchases can be done online at https://hiff.org/2024-fall-grid/?_venues=kauai-community-college.
