Given

Wed May 31, 20:30 - Wed May 31, 22:30

The Labia Theatre

ABOUT

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In many ways, Given the movie came to life as an ongoing conversation between two childhood friends and their distinct approaches to life at large. When director Jess Bianchi learned his friend Aamion Goodwin had plans to take his wife, Daize and their young family on an epic journey around the world, he knew this wasn’t just about making tracks on an extended holiday. For Aamion this was the pa
ssing down of a family legacy started by his father, an initiation into a way of life and a set of values foreign to an increasingly materialistic world.

Their difference in backgrounds perhaps explains it. Both had a strong connection with their respective fathers, each of whom had a different response to the demands of life. Jess’s father is a man of metal and ore, building oil refineries and airports in far-flung locations and whom distant as he was, had to rely on boarding school to fill the gap with his son. Aamion’s father on the other hand had gone off grid in his twenties, seeking freedom from the usual expectations and massively simplifying their lives to where nature was both teacher and provider. He raised Aamion through the many cultures and communities they traveled through and in a life absent of pedagogues, Aamion inherited the lesson being untethered gives us, that of presence and surrender.

Even while the story follows the pursuit of a tantalizingly elusive Big Fish, it is those two states that wordlessly occupy the moving meditation of scene after stunning scene of wild nature and an array of welcoming peoples.

Traveling through fifteen countries from the US, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Nepal, Thailand, Peru, the Marshall Islands, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, Morocco, Senegal, Japan and Fiji, and using almost every known mode of transportation from tuk tuks to choppers, the film follows the Goodwins on a 14 month meander across the globe. With a soundtrack composed by Gregory Rogove featuring Devendra Banhart and Rodrigo, the music is a subtle bird song into each earth scape, playfully arriving then receding to let nature take center stage.

Shot and completed in 4K and mixed at Lucas Films’ Skywalker Ranch, every scene is a bounty of crisp and immersive imagery you can almost touch.

Given is a movie refreshingly bereft of instructions for its viewers, and faithful to the innocent voice of discovery as narrated by a child. In an overly articulated world, it carries a powerful message in as few words as possible, with no handholding or agenda: Be here now, discover and surrender.

 
Release date
2016
 
Genre
Documentary
 
Studio
Good Wolf and Avocados and Coconuts
 
About
Given is the story of a legacy that takes one unique family (legendary surfers Daize and Aamion Goodwin) on an adventure around the world.
 
Starring
Aamion Goodwin
Daize Goodwin
Given Goodwin
True Goodwin
 
Directed By
Jess Bianchi
 
Written By
Jess Bianchi
Malia Mau
Yvonne Puig

Director of Photography
Devin Whetstone
 
Produced By
Dalia Burde
Heron Calish-Dolen
Paige Livingston

DIRECTIONS

Given
The Labia Theatre
68 Orange St, Gardens, Cape Town, 8001, South Africa
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