Albert ‘Alby’ Falzon (born 1945) is an Australian filmmaker, photographer.
I used his photograph in my most recent book. It was large print on the walls of a shopping centre and I hadn’t bothered to enquire who the photographer was. I bought some of his postcards today and found the attribution.
He filmed and directed the influential surf film Morning of the Earth (1972). and is known for his work on surfing but lately he has made films about art and music,
Phil Jarratt writes, ‘Tracks was the brainchild of architecture student and surfer John Witzig, surf photographer and designer Albert Falzon, and music entrepreneur David Elfick. In rough tabloid newspaper format, Tracks railed against pollution, apartheid and the Establishment, and championed pot, sex and soul surfing. It was an instant hit, providing Falzon and Elfick with a platform to raise enough money to produce a surf movie that similarly broke new ground . . .
When the surf at Kuta went flat, Falzon and girlfriend Tanya Binning took a bemo (small bus) to the dusty Bukit Peninsula to search for waves. They were dropped at Pura Luhur Uluwatu, one of the island’s most sacred temples, and slowly worked their way along the cliffs, more than 50 metres above the ocean. It was a long, difficult and exhausting hike in the heat of the day, but eventually Falzon saw what he’d been looking for.
He filmed and directed the influential surf film Morning of the Earth (1972).
I missed the event due to media commitments.
Found this online: ‘This morning we managed to find ourselves in an audience with legendary surfers and life-long writers Derek Hynd and Rusty Miller as well as Kurungabaa Collective contributors Taylor Miller and Kim Satchell. The occasion was the kick off to the Bellingen Readers & Writers Festival and Hynds tale of Fred Van Dyke’s brush with enlightenment in the California Redwood forests in the Summer of ’62 was as entertaining as it was historical. This was no ordinary literary hob-nob. The focus was squarely on surfing, the venue was the classically coastal Headland Cafe at Valla Beach and of course the day began with a stoked filled surf.’ [ii]
Phil Jarratt’s article is called, ‘The movie that changed Bali’, but I write about Bali in the book. I visited the island in 1981, and even then I wished Bali has not changed.
[i] Phil Jarratt, ‘The movie that changed Bali’, https://noosatoday.com.a 23/02/2022.
[ii] March 23, 2012, https://www.sproutdaily.com/the-daily/bellingen-writers
