Director Alby Falzon says “I just wanted to make a beautiful film about surfing, the planet and the ocean.” And so he did with Morning of the Earth, one of the most essential counterculture documentaries of its day, recently restored for its 50th anniversary. Spanning the stunning beaches and formidable waves of Australia’s North Coast, Uluwatu and Hawaii, the film’s exuberant montage depicts the union of surfer and sea with near-spiritual reverence. With an iconic, best-selling soundtrack from Australian bands of the era produced by G. Wayne Thomas, Falzon’s radiant 16mm images serve as both a loving time capsule and a poetic study of light, water and the human body.
