8 Docos

SEARCHING FOR MICHAEL PETERSON WINTER SCREENING TOUR

Due to popular demand, hit surf movie “Searching for Michael Peterson” will be screening in Melbourne at the Esplanade Hotel this Thursday.

Recent screenings at Noosa, Coolangatta, Byron Bay, Newcastle, Avoca, Palm Beach, Manly and Bondi all sold out and we expect these screenings to sell out as well.

“Brought a tear to my eye.” Alby Falzon – Director, Morning of the Earth.

“Fantastic, funny and sad all at the same time. Spectacular footage from the era.” Vaughan Blakey – Editor Surfing World.

“Better than the bra boys” Bob McTavish.

Australian surf star Michael Peterson, won every major contest in Australia between 1972 and ’77, then abruptly dropped out of the scene.  Searching for Michael Peterson, directed by Jolyon Hoff, follows the moving story of one of Australia’s greatest surfers, whose career was cut short by mental illness. For five glorious years “MP” led the Coolangatta Kids and won virtually every event he entered. His brilliant, aggressive surfing provided the centrepiece for Albert Falzon’s Morning of the Earth in 1972, and MP never looked back. His final tour victory, at the inaugural Stubbies Pro at Burleigh Heads in 1977, is regarded as the high point of the early professional era. Sadly, a year later, triumph turned to tragedy and Michael’s demons claimed him.

In 1983 he was locked up after a 15-car police chase across Queensland and finally diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. He never surfed again.

Thirty years on, MP is still vitally interested in the sport and culture of surfing and is a fixture at most Queensland events, enjoying the action with his mother, Joan. He is rightly regarded as an iconic figure in Australian surfing, and Hoff’s film, while it pulls no punches, is an intensely moving tribute to the man.

Also screening is footage from Ocean Rhythms and Dogs Run Free. Ocean Rhythms is simply the best surfing footage of the seventies that’s never been seen, featuring Michael Peterson, Peter Townend, Rabbit and many others. It has just been re-released after 30 years and the DVD will be available at the shows for the first time. Dogs Run Free is a lost Super 8 film that features local surfing at Kirra, Burleigh and Snapper and the building of the Kirra Groyne. Re-released especially for this tour it is available as a DVD extra on the Searching for Michael Peterson DVD.

For more information go to www.searchingformichaelpeterson.com.au

For more information, photographs and artwork please contact Shana Palmer at 8Docos on 02 9571 5588

The filmmakers are available for interviews.