Surfwise (Dir: Doug Pray)

The tight knit Paskowitz family lived a dreamlike existence packing their nine kids into a camper, living beachside in cities across the US and Mexico, surfing everyday, never sending the kids to school and working only when they had to. By 2006, many of the family members weren't speaking to one another. The story of how the family fell apart is at the center of this intriguing documentary.

Dorian "Doc" Paskowitz, the patriarch of the family, is a Stanford graduate and one-time head of the American Medical Association for the State of Hawaii. Though he achieved significant professional success at a young age, he was miserable and dropped out of his work and marriage. While on a worldwide research tour--bedding numerous women--he meets Juliett who scores high on his "1-100" scale that he uses to quantify each conquest. She joins him in the tiny camper and together they go off to live Dorian's dream. He feeds the kids an all natural diet, keeps them out of school, teaches them how to surf, and conducts all marital activities in front of his nine children.

The film uses a mix of news footage, still photography, and modern day interviews. At first the tone of the film is kind of wacky and fun, but the tone grows darker and more bizarre as the children age. Is Dorian a tyrant? Is he forcing the family to live a dream that is fundamentally unwise, unhealthy? The film lets Dorian and the children pass judgment on their own experience. (Ordeal?) Some of the now grown childrens' interviews are particularly painful including a pained, angry song from son David which he wrote for his father and sings to the camera. This is one of the rawest, most uncomfortable film moments I have seen in recent years.

Surfwise wisely lets each family member speak for themselves and in doing so creates an even-handed, fascinating look at a family in crisis.