Five Summer Stories / Film School Radio interview with Co-director Greg MacGillivray (Jim Freeman)

Greg MacGillivray and Jim Freeman were already celebrated for producing gold standard surf films when, in 1972, they released FIVE SUMMER STORIES. They were two young Southern California filmmakers who entered the surf-film world in the mid-‘60s. FIVE SUMMER STORIES originated as a “farewell to surfing” from the talented duo, who were being courted by Hollywood and ready leave the surf-film world for other creative work. They handpicked great sequences they hadn’t used yet, secured legendary cinematographer Bud Browne for new material, and wove all the elements together into a series of stories. They topped it off with original music from the band Honk and classic songs of the Beach Boys and suddenly you have an enduring cinema classic. From the allure of its Rick Griffin poster art to its tightly framed ultra-slow-motion camera work, this was a state-of-the-art film that authentically, and often humorously, captured the state of a sport. Since its initial release FIVE SUMMER STORIES has toured America 10 times in four successive versions that played to more than a million people, many of them surfers and many more that had never even touched a surfboard! Although very much in the surf film genre, FIVE SUMMER STORIES raised the art form to a new level and set the standard for the next two decades. Even today, it remains the standard by which all surf films are artistically measured. Co-director Greg MacGillivray joins us for a conversation on the long, strange trip that FIVE SUMMER STORIES has been for his soaring career, how it allowed him and MacGillivray / Freeman Film to become world’s leading producer and distributor of giant screen (IMAX) films. For news and screenings go to: fivesummerstories.com For more on their films go to: macgillivrayfreeman.com For more go to: macgillivrayfreeman.com/five-summer-stories