If you're interested in unconventional or thought-provoking surf films, you'll want to set aside some time for White Wash, a new documentary about the black surf experience. It's screening for free on Saturday, February 18th, at the National Film Board Mediatheque in Toronto as part of the Sports Weekend film festival, a two-day, four-film event that celebrates black sport in film.

Here's the synopsis:

"White Wash, the documentary, is a film exploring the complexity of race in America through the struggle and triumph of black surfers. The story is narrated by Grammy Award winner Ben Harper with Black Thought of the Roots and told through the eyes of black surfers from Hawaii, Jamaica, Florida and California. It looks deep into America's painful and pervasive legacy of slavery and exclusion. From surfing's 'discovery' by Captain James Cook in Hawaii in 1778 through the explosion of surf culture during the days of segregated Jim Crow America in the 1960s, this film explores the myths that black surfers have overcome in their search for waves."

I haven't seen it yet, but I'm looking forward to finding a copy. I love the quote at the end of the trailer: "If God only picked a few black surfers, I'm sure glad I got to be one of them."

For more information about the Toronto screening, click here. There's also a Facebook page here.