Surf star Mick riding wave of film success
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2020
ONE phone call was all it took to put a Tasmanian-produced documentary on the international stage.
Clifton Beach surfing legend and Surfing Tasmania president Mick Lawrence told the Mercury he is still shaking his head in disbelief that his Rogue Waves documentary would now be seen by people all over the world.
He originally made the documentary for his son Tim and nearly gave up on it after Tim died in a jet ski accident in 2017. The documentary was shown in Tasmania late last year.
A few months ago Mr Lawrence got a call from a man named Jack from Sydney who told him he had read an article about Rogue Waves online and wanted to know how he could see it.
He told Mr Lawrence he was having some pretty serious health issues.
The strangers talked for about an hour about the philosophical side of self healing and when Mr Lawrence offered to send Rogue Waves to him he discovered he had actually been chatting with one of his heroes – Australia’s most eminent surf filmmaker Jack McCoy.
“I was just gobsmacked,” Mr Lawrence said.
“I said, ‘You’re not THE Jack McCoy?’ And he said yes.
“I sent it off and thought that would be the end of that.”
But Jack McCoy was deeply moved by Rogue Waves.
“I believe in the Polynesian word called ‘aloha’, which is the breath of life,” Mr McCoy said.
“The deeper meaning is anything I have, anything I can share, I do so unconditionally, I expect nothing in return. That’s what I try to live.”
Mr McCoy contacted his Hollywood film distribution agent, Linda Nelson, from Indie Rights.
After watching Rogue Waves herself she called Mr Lawrence and told him Indie Rights wanted to be his international distributor.
She offered to help get
Rogue Waves on some of the 170 video-on-demand platforms.
“The whole industry is changing,” Mr Lawrence said. “There are all these new viewing platforms.
“If you just do a cinema release you are lucky to get 40 per cent [of the takings] but this way people can rent or buy and away it goes. I’d really like to get some money to the people who helped me put it together and then maybe keep some for retirement.”
Rogue Waves will open the Breath of Fresh Air film festival in Launceston on May 1 and feature in the Cradle Mountain Film Festival in early April.