Finding hope in Ecuador: The doco following an Aussie surfer’s journey to her roots
By Pilar Paredes, Barry Divola, Jonathan Seidler and Damien Woolnough
WATCH / The quest
In a new documentary, Australian world-class surfer and environmental activist Pacha Light reconnects with Ecuador, the country of her birth. Credit: Erick Ramos
The surf documentary Ceibo follows Australian world-class surfer and environmental activist Pacha Light on a personal journey of exploration and discovery as she reconnects with the country of her birth, Ecuador, following the sudden death of her father, Marcelo Luque, in 2021. His loss left her with many unanswered questions about his role in her life as she grew up, far away from him, in northern NSW and Queensland with her Australian mother, Anja.
Amid a series of magnificent backdrops, we watch Light retracing her earliest memories, from the cloud forest in the Andes where she was born – including the small, stone and mud house where her family once lived – and the life-giving Amazon rainforest to the seaside city of Bahía de Caráquez and a visit to her father’s nature reserve, Cerro Seco, home to giant ceibo trees.
Light’s journey of self-discovery includes a broader exploration of women’s rights, environmental activism and surfing by way of interviews with indigenous activists Muyu Flores and Elizabeth Swanson Andi, both fighting the destruction of the Amazon by mining companies, and Dominic “Mimi” Barona, Ecuador’s only Olympic surfer, who is blazing a trail for female surfers. “Their inspiring stories give me hope – in activism, relationships, Indigenous wisdom and the strength of community,” says Light.
In connecting with a country her father never left, Light finds a new sense of self and feels her own love of competitive surfing reviving (she walked away from the sport in 2020). She’s joined on her journey by fellow Australian surfer Lucy Small and British filmmaker Maddie Meddings. In cinemas nationally from April 8. Pilar Paredes
READ / The collectors
A new book offers a rare glimpse into the homes of 26 of Australia’s most interesting art collectors.
When COVID-19 locked down theatres and art galleries, Kym Elphinstone needed a project. She had spent the previous decade building her arts communications agency, Articulate, but suddenly, there were no shows to promote. Rather than twiddle her thumbs, she decided to write a book. The result is Collecting: Living with Art ($80), a glossy, coffee-table book in which 26 collectors discuss and showcase the art they simply had to have. The book features a roll-call of high-profile collectors, from Penelope Seidler, Gene Sherman and Amanda Love to art dealers Andrew Jensen and Emma Fox and artists Lottie Consalvo, James Drinkwater and Jonny Niesche.
LISTEN / Sweep stakes
A six-part podcast exposes the never-before-told scandal that rocked the sport of curling.
Curling is a sport that looks quaintly comical, with two players on an ice rink frantically brushing the ice with brooms to aid the passage of a heavy “stone” towards a target. In 2015, the curling world was rocked to its core when a team emerged using a “super broom”, employing just one sweeper instead of two. It was the biggest scandal in the sport’s more than 500-year history, leading to allegations of cheating that threatened to tear apart the Canadian curling community. Broomgate: A Curling Scandal, a podcast from comedian and curling enthusiast John Cullen, is as entertaining as it is enlightening. As well as showing how a seemingly small thing can have such huge ramifications, it does something even more remarkable: it makes you care about curling. Barry Divola
GROOVE / Wild thing
Bon Iver’s latest album Sable, Fable is a return to the stripped-back indie folk sound of his debut.
Bearded wonder Justin Vernon, who trades as Bon Iver, has always made a fine art of balancing the trendy with the naff. It’s perhaps his unparalleled ability to pull the latter toward the former that has endeared him so much to Australians, with whom he enjoys an ardent, long-term love affair. On his latest record, Sable, Fable, Vernon leans into the style of music he presumably grew up on, with songs stuffed full of big choruses, naked lyricism and 1980s production. There are chord progressions straight out of Cyndi Lauper’s True Colours and booming Huey Lewis-style drums. Despite its glistening overtures, it’s the closest he’s come to his 2007 breakout debut, For Emma, Forever Ago, famously written entirely alone in the woods of Wisconsin; this is best evidenced in the first three tracks which have arrived as an advance EP. Where his previous efforts have sacrificed some of Vernon’s songwriting chops for experimentation, there’s no denying them on this album. Lumberjack yacht rock is going to have a big year. Jonathan Seidler
WEAR / Out of step
An Adidas collab offers footwear fashion with an Australian edge.
Sometimes, you want to separate yourself from the pack without straying too far. With the celebrity endorsement of Victoria Beckham, Taylor Swift and Kylie Jenner, the triple stripe of pristine white Adidas Superstar sneakers has dominated footpaths and red carpets alike in recent years. Now Australian label Song For The Mute gives you the opportunity to blaze your own trail with its earthy, brown-suede take on the style (“SFTM x Adidas 005 Superstar 83″ in Toast, $240). A collaboration for the cool-gang fringe. Damien Woolnough
SLEEP / Dream beds
Celebrity bed favourites now available at Swedish brand Hästens’ showroom in Paddington, Sydney. Credit: Pablo Veiga
If celebrity endorsement is a measure of a brand’s success, then Swedish bedmaker Hästens is going great guns. Sia, Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise and Drake are all converts, with the Canadian rapper owning the granddaddy of all beds – the upwards-of-$1.2 million, 455-kilogram Grand Vividus, which takes pride of place in his 300-square-metre Toronto boudoir. Hästens (“hest-ens”) has been crafting beds of rarefied quality since 1852, using horse hair (layer upon layer, apparently), cotton, wool and flax, all selected for their ability to regulate temperature, among other qualities. Now, the trademark blue-and-white checked beds are available in Sydney: the brand has recently opened a showroom in Sydney’s Paddington, joining its first Australian outlet, a space within Great Dane Furniture’s Fitzroy store in Melbourne. You need not sell your apartment to buy a Hästens bed (although it would help): the range starts at about $28,000. Deborah Cooke
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