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Wild Goat Surf film image

Wild Goat Surf

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World Premiere

It’s 2003, and 12-year-old Rell “Goat” Barrel (Shayelin Martin) and her mom Jane (Caitlyn Sponheimer) are scheming and scrounging their way through another Penticton summer. Having illegally sublet the house they’re renting; they’re now holed up in a RV park bordering Skaha Lake. From this modest base of operations, Goat befriends an awkward outsider (Leandro Guedes), skateboards, shoplifts, and talks a big game about becoming a world-class surfer… Despite having never actually climbed atop a board or laid eyes on the ocean.

Helming her debut feature, Sponheimer conspires with cinematographer Joseph Schweers and composer Cayne McKenzie to transform the Okanagan Valley into a majestic, almost mythical backdrop for this tale of a young girl trying to slip the shackles of circumstance. Skilfully subverting expectations at practically every turn, a story of grand ambitions draws its persuasive power from chance encounters, casual exchanges, and instances in which summer lethargy cedes to adolescent rebellion.

 

September 29 & October 3: Q&A with director Caitlyn Sponheimer & crew

 

Presented by

Series Media Partner

     

Community Partner

Director
Cast

Shayelin Martin, Leandro Guedes, Dyllón Burnside, Caitlyn Sponheimer, Brittany Drisdelle

Credits
Country of Origin

Canada

Year

2023

Series

Northern Lights

Language

English

Film Contact
Content Warning

Coarse Language

PG
104 min
Drama Women Directors

Book Tickets

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Credits

Executive Producer

Abubakar Salim, Robert Montcalm, Warren Sultatycky, Dyllón Burnside

Producer

Mike Johnston, Caitlyn Sponheimer

Screenwriter

Caitlyn Sponheimer

Cinematography

Joseph Schweers

Editor

Sarah Trudelle

Director

Caitlyn Sponheimer headshot

Caitlyn Sponheimer

Award winning Canadian filmmaker, Caitlyn Sponheimer, is a Director Guild of Canada nominee, Reykjavik Talent Lab alumna and Telefilm Canada and Canada Council for the Arts grant recipient. As an actor, Caitlyn is a graduate of Meisner’s Neighborhood Playhouse. Her work has been shown at festivals around the globe with her co-written/lead role feature premiering under Telefilm’s Best of New Canadian Cinema at Cannes Marche (’18). Caitlyn produced and costarred in the multi-award-winning Telefilm Canada and Alberta Media Fund feature Jasmine Road (2020). In 2021, Caitlyn wrote, directed, and produced a project for 20th Digital Studios/Freeform, The Ugliest of Them All, which garnered nearly 3 million views in under a week. Currently, Caitlyn is completing her debut feature film, the Telefilm and Crave/Bell Media Wild Goat Surf, which she wrote, directed, and starred in. Acting credits include Amazon’s The Boys, NBC’s Transplant, and Supermassive’s horror video game from the Dark Pictures Anthology Little Hope starring opposite Will Poulter.

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