Dream is possibly the darkest cartoon you’ll ever see. And it’s most likely the darkest cartoon about surfing ever created. According to The Encyclopedia of Surfing, Dream is a semi autobiographical film about its creator Mark Sutherland. There’s a lot of drug use, there’s sex, crime, and in between all the mayhem is surfing. But it shows these things in a way that doesn’t glorify them at all. The only glamorous moments are the ones spent looking out through the end of a barrel. I’d love to dig inside Sutherland’s brain and learn what the message is, and the simplest explanation I can gather from it all is that no matter what happens surfing remains his escape. He drifts off into heaving barrels the moment heroin seeps into his bloodstream, on and off throughout the movie. And even after it all comes crashing down and he’s lost it all, he lays his head down to mind surf yet again. It’s a trip.
“Dream,” by Mark Sutherland from ENCYCLOPEDIA of SURFING videos on Vimeo.
