Destination 3° (degrees)
dir. by Chris Aguilar
(60m, U S A, English)

“The ocean has many faces” says Morgan Hoesterey – the first woman to cross the Molokai Channel on a stand up paddle board. “You don’t power across the ocean, you negotiate with it”. For her and fellow distance stand up paddler, Jenny Kalmbach, this would prove true as they crossed almost 300 miles of open ocean across the Hawaiian channels. Both women are passionate about the ocean, so much so they took on the challenge of paddling the entire chain to raise funds and awareness for the Algalita Marine Research Foundation.

The waters between the Hawaiian islands are the stuff of legend. Sailors such as Captain Cook and others have been stuck in fierce storms with twenty foot waves and high winds for days on end, unable to make land. Many have died in attempts to navigate these three degrees of latitude. In order do this safely, they assembled a small team including a NOAA meteorologist, a marine navigator, a writer to document the trip, two photographers, and a documentary film maker to capture the trip. In addition, Jenny’s boyfriend, Ryan – a Kona firefighter, became the group’s medical support.

With each channel, new challenges arose from personality conflicts to equipment failures. But nothing seemed to prepare anyone for the long 80 miles from Oahu to Kauai. A crossing that would try everyone’s stamina as the girls paddled for 16 straight hours in the middle of the night to arrive in Kauai by the morning of the next day. Faced with strong winds and 10 foot swells coming at them from the side the girls banded together to make it across safely.

The story of Destination 3° (degrees) covers the good and bad of the trip, from the heroic accomplishments of their physical feats – to the heartbreaking reality of the plastics problem in our oceans. We see each side of the ocean’s faces, and the inspiring true story of the power of the human spirit.

Saturday, 6/25/11
7:30 - 8:30 pm
at Bananas