Michael is disabled and uses a wheelchair to go about his daily life in California. But it’s on the ocean atop his custom surfboard that he feels most free and lucid – a sensation he describes as his ‘birthright’. Sean Mullens’s modest yet moving film chronicles his friend Michael as he goes about his everyday surfing ritual, and explores the essential human desire to transcend limitations.
Director: Sean Mullens
videoConsciousness and altered states
How an artist learned to ‘co-live’ with the distressing voice in her head
6 minutes
videoConsciousness and altered states
What do screens depicting serene natural scenes mean to those living in lock-up?
12 minutes
videoAgeing and death
Memories of friends and neighbours light the streets of a seaside village in England
11 minutes
videoFilm and visual culture
Space and time expand, contract and combust in this propulsive animation
5 minutes
videoSports and games
Young Palestinians find fleeting moments of freedom at a West Bank skate park
13 minutes
videoConsciousness and altered states
‘I want me back’ – after a head injury, Nick struggles with his altered reality
7 minutes
videoAnthropology
For an Amazonian female shaman, ayahuasca ceremonies are a rite and a business
30 minutes
videoSports and games
Havana’s streets become racetracks in this exhilarating portrait of children at play
5 minutes
videoAnthropology
Does Mogi’s future lie with her horses on the Mongolian steppe, or in the city?
16 minutes