Ten Years In The Making, Thomas Campbell’s ‘Yi-Wo’ Is Finally Here
Photography courtesy of Thomas Campbell.
It’s like the voice in your head always says: good things come to those who wait.
And if that thing is a decade-long Thomas Campbell project that is an unfettered expression of intentionality, maturity, and the beauty of everyday surfing? Even better.
Yi-Wo is not your modern-day, contemporary surf movie. It’s quite the opposite, in fact. But we won’t tell you what it is and what to think about it. Because that, according to an always kind, curious, and never-not-a-lovely-conversation Thomas, is up to you. And he’s got a point.
In a world where we should maybe be looking at things from different angles. Or, asking the questions we don’t really know there are answers to, his art makes us consider that maybe it’s time to switch up our perspective.
And speaking of kind, curious, lovely conversations, we talked to him about Yi-Wo, art, tilting your view on the everyday, and a whole lot more. And it was quite a long one, so we’ll stop things here and let you get into the interview itself.
But before you start scrolling, make sure to catch Yi-Wo touring throughout North America and the world starting today. You can find more information on Thomas’ Instagram account, or scan through the dates below and cherry-pick the one closest to you. Trust us, you’re going to be kicking yourself all over if you miss this one.
So, how does it feel? It's been ten years and some change of putting this all together and developing it. It must be a little surreal knowing that Yi-Wo is finally here.
Well, you saw it. So you know it’s quite an evolved piece. With a lot of layers and dimensions. And it’s different. Different from any of the others.
I almost feel like the timing wasn’t exactly what I wanted. But I had another movie going, Ye Olde Destruction, a skateboard movie, that I made during the same time, and then I have an eight-year-old daughter, so becoming a dad. But I feel like, in the end, the maturation and really wanting something new and really striving for something new? I think it shows in the end project. The maturation of the ideas came all the way, you know?
Funny you say that, one of the notes I wrote down while watching it is that it felt very intentionally mature. There's no real time wasted. It’s spent in the best possible way. It’s not a beginner's surf movie. It’s here, and it’s something you either have to figure out or just surrender to.
Let's have some fun and push boundaries and explore new areas and really enjoy those deep intricacies that surfing really brings us, that sort of thing. Was that the story you initially set out to tell? How did those ideas morph after ten years?
I would say to your question, “Was it intentional?” And my response would be fuck yes. You know, I just feel like surfing is such an exquisite activity and such a beautiful form of play. There are so many rogue, creative individuals. And that’s the side of things I’m interested in. I don’t care about competition at all.
This is just like exactly what I love, you know? My favourite surfers, maybe besides one or two that aren't in there. But, you know, these are just my favourite surfers and their approaches that are like performances. I just wanted to celebrate the things that I like. That's what this is. So, yeah, man, I’m happy. I’m feeling good about it.
I would say this, we live in a world with a lot of quick-cut images. And I come from a time when I looked at older filmmakers like MacGillivray, Witzig, Bruce Brown, and people in that era. Filmmakers like Cassavetes, who let things run and let things be.
When things are good, let them stay good. Let them be what they are. In a certain way, I felt like there’s kind of a punk rock aspect to it. There are a lot of long cuts. There are quite a few five-six-minute parts with a lot of slow motion and abstract turns, and I felt like, hey! This life is deep and there’s so much detail and emotion and colour to it. Let’s celebrate and rejoice in the dimension of what we have and what we have access to. And in opposition to the quick cuts and the short clips.
This is, like, do you have an attention span? Can you handle this? This is great, and I’m going to let it all be there. It’s not like there’s a bad shot, but there are great shots that balance together, and I want them to be longer. So, I let them be longer. And I felt like I was really pushing there and asking, what can I do? Can we make this more lush? Give this more depth? That was all very conscious.
The name of the movie, Yi-Wo, I made up because I came up with a word that I wanted just to be what the film was. A sound or a feeling, something unknown. And everyone says it different. I mean, how would you say it?
“Yi-Wo”
I love it. And I notice in different circumstances people are trying to talk about it, which are mostly my friends at this point, but they’re all saying it differently. Which is cool, and the way I say it doesn’t even matter. Because, wherever it goes, whatever people want to think, that’s what it is. I really set out to make something that had as little grounding in the known world as possible.
Tell me a bit about the cast. I know you mentioned it being mostly made of friends and people whose style you respect, but what exactly went into selecting who you had featured and how you decided to showcase them?
A lot of them, like half of them, had been in my movies before. Then people like Craig Anderson and Burch and Karina Rozunko and Bryce Young, you know, they hadn’t been in my films before. Lauren Hill and Trevor Gordon, too. At the end of the day, it’s like, when you’re setting up to paint a picture and you go, okay, what colours do I have? And what colours will go well together? That’s it.
And worked with most of those people prior. Not all necessarily in films, but shooting stills and stuff. They’re my friends and they liked the movies I did before. So, more or less, we were just trying to get people together and have it be cool and get people psyched to be together and surf together, and it was fucking awesome.
It was a new way of expressing, and a way to access these more existential thoughts. And I guess my question to you is, after you watched it, how did you feel?
Well, here, I’ll just read my notes again. So, I wrote something along the lines that it’s here, and this is an objectively beautiful expression of surfing. But it's my subjective choice to enjoy it. And that was my biggest takeaway.
I very, very, very much enjoyed it. It’s a lot like you said, it's very mature, and advanced in its storytelling. It presents itself in terms of, like, hey! Here's this thing that we do every single day, and there’s beauty in it even though that beauty has maybe been compartmentalised into clips and thrown into, you know, just these short, quote-unquote, snackable snippets. There’s this need for instant gratification, and this is not that. There are ugly bits and mundane bits, but that’s just reality. But altogether it’s beautiful.
Then I also wrote that Burch’s surfing is insane. That guy is an artist in his own way.
Let me tell you, and this might be interesting. I ask you that in that way, kind of unrequited, because fifty per cent of people say that, after watching it, they feel like they’re on mushrooms or that they just came off of mushrooms.
I’m not trying to put words in your mouth, because in a way it has this intensity. Even though it has these mellow-ish parts, it doesn’t let up. That was very conscious. It’s a ride. It holds you. I think that’s why people say it’s like being on mushrooms. It’s a ride that you come out of the other end of going, “Wow, okay.”
How does it feel releasing this into the world, then? Fuck the critics and fuck the haters always, of course.
You know what I think? I just don't care. I'm just happy that I did the thing, I made the movements, and I did the best I could. I did the creative thing I could do to the best of my ability, and it opened me up to a new way of movie-making. It feels original, and it feels like a path to keep doing that type of movie-making. I really like it, and I feel stoked.
It wasn’t cheap to make the film. But it also is, like, I got to make the thing that I wanted to make. There could’ve been many more different routes, like where I was given more money from someone else, for example, and I would have to acquiesce to their view. But I’m fortunate enough that I have other jobs that allow me the freedom to follow the muse and do the thing. Everyone has different circumstances, but I feel really fortunate that I was able to take that path in the way that I did.
So, I’m stoked. Basically, with this film, if you don’t have an attention span, it’s going to tell you to get the fuck out of here. And that’s fine. If people don’t like it or can’t hang, beat it. It’s not for you. It’s fine. But if you’re down? It’s here for you.
I’m lucky I was able to finance it myself and keep it in my own arena, and now I can share it how I want to share it. I could strive to put things on bigger platforms, but I don’t think this is the right movie for it. This is just a different thing. A special thing.