Alex Klein Pt. 1

Alex Klein

Alex was a skateboarder for most of his life. It was good to him; he had legitimate sponsors, he was able to travel the world and meet new people everywhere he went. But by the time he turned 25, he felt the need to explore new avenues.

With a natural inclination toward storytelling (he’d been submitting editorials to skateboard magazines for a few years during his skating career), Alex wanted to try his hand at filmmaking. A lack of direction hampered his ability to dive in immediately, but a surprise meeting with Joel Coen would inspire him to make a film with the limited resources to which he had access. Cue ‘God Went Surfing with the Devil.’

Alex and a crew of three friends (Edward Chase, Bryan Derballa, and Danilo Parra) spent two months shooting in Israel and Gaza, exploring surfing as means of peacemaking in the region. Despite being confronted with grave danger at every turn while under the stress of a strict timeline, Alex was able to complete his film. And despite his satisfaction with how it turned out, the experience had a lot more to offer than simple lessons in filmmaking.

10 Comments

  1. November 16, 2009
    1:02 pm

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    I’m sorry, but this is just incredible. When is the film coming out??

    Reply

    - Jessie
  2. November 16, 2009
    1:13 pm

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    part 2 please!!!! great job guys, this episode was amazing to watch and I cannot wait to see the next one

    Reply

    - this is amazing
  3. November 16, 2009
    2:34 pm

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    can i get a what whaat???

    Reply

    - aaron
  4. November 16, 2009
    3:03 pm

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    looks really good, great stuff guys

    Reply

    - SeveredFinger
  5. November 16, 2009
    11:38 pm

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    very cool

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    - Ilana Israel
  6. November 17, 2009
    12:01 pm

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    damn. good

    Reply

    - Anonymous
  7. November 17, 2009
    5:35 pm

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    @Jessie follow http://godwentsurfing.tumblr.com for premieres. With any luck it will have some big openings in 2010!

    Reply

  8. November 19, 2009
    2:45 pm

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    Nice work. Looking forward to part 2!

    Reply

  9. November 19, 2009
    7:02 pm

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    Thanks for watching, dude!

    Reply

  10. November 21, 2009
    8:25 am

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    Loved this.… can’t wait to see more.

    Reply

4 Trackbacks

  1. By WATCH: Shotwell: Alex Klein Part 1 | Say Mayday on November 16, 2009 at 12:24 pm

    […] Jordan Tappis Skip to content shotwellAlex Klein Teaserkyle emery-peckAlex Klein Pt. 1articlesSandy Kim doesn’t know what the she is doingIlluminatiJordan TappisJordan Tappis 2Jordan […]

  2. By Alex Klein Shotwell at News on November 16, 2009 at 9:02 pm

    […] among bookmark bars across the country. Today they launched their biggest original feature to date: Shotwell, a series documenting the lives of individual visual artists. The first episode is about our homie […]

  3. […] Skater/filmmaker Alex Klein made an amazing mini-documentary about his own life when it took a curve and started filming in stead of skating. He had this idea to head for Gaza and document the event. This is part one and yes, there’s more to come. Have a look, it’s good! Via SayMayday. […]

  4. By Shotwell – Alex Klein | Defgrip on November 21, 2009 at 12:26 am

    […] Malama and the guys at Say Mayday have a great series going on called Shotwell. We linked up to the first series they did on Kyle […]

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