Programs

More than an archive

Preservation is where it starts. From there we turn the Nalu Vault into new stories, train the next generation of surf filmmakers, and bring the films back to the big screen.

Videotape decks at the Nalu Film Foundation
01Active now

Preservation & digitization

Everything starts with saving the originals. Film runs through our Blackmagic Cintel scanner frame by frame, videotapes are digitized deck by deck before they fail, and slides and prints are scanned at high resolution.

  • 20+ filmmaker and photographer collections in the Nalu Vault, with more on the way
  • 16,000+ hours of film and video protected, plus thousands of photographs
  • A complete in-house workflow: $250 scans a 1,000-foot reel
  • Next: archive services for independent and student filmmakers
How we preserve archives
Sonny Miller, filmmaker of the Rip Curl Search series. Photo: Tom Servais
02In development

Nalu Films: original stories

We don't just store the footage, we tell its stories. Through Nalu Films, our production arm, we're recording interviews with the surfers, athletes, photographers, filmmakers and shapers who lived it, while we still can.

  • Planned docuseries: Into the Archives and Legends of Surf and more
  • Goal: one feature documentary a year
  • From the team behind Fiberglass and Megapixels (2010), winner of five festival awards
Support original content
Andy and Bruce Irons, 1990. Photo: Derek Hoffmann
03Coming soon

Education: the next generation

We want to put Nalu Vault footage, and the people who shot it, in front of young people who love the ocean and want to tell its stories.

  • Documentary and action sports filmmaking workshops for high schools, starting in California and Hawaii
  • One- to two-hour classes in cinematography, editing and storytelling, during or after school
  • A young filmmaker competition: awards, grants, Vault access and distribution on Nalu TV
  • A surf photography contest with cash prizes and gear from partners
  • Mentorship for future filmmakers and archivists
  • Pictured: Andy and Bruce Irons as groms, 1990. Photo: Derek Hoffmann
Teachers and schools: get in touch
Tom Curren in conversation with Jeff Booth at a Searching for Tom Curren screening, Rivian, Laguna Beach
04Screenings now · Festival planned

Screenings & the Nalu Film Festival

We bring restored surf films back to the big screen, often with the legends who made them.

  • About a dozen screenings of the remastered 25th Anniversary edition of Searching for Tom Curren in memory of Sonny Miller
  • Several showings of Wave Warriors with Herbie Fletcher, to packed, stoked crowds
  • Next: the Nalu Film Festival
  • The festival will be home to the young filmmaker competition awards
  • Pictured: Tom Curren in conversation with Jeff Booth at a Searching for Tom Curren screening at The Rivian, South Coast Theater, Laguna Beach
Host a screening

Help build what comes next.

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501(c)(3) nonprofit · EIN 39-3511964 · Donations are tax-deductible