This is a documentary about an extraordinary, unique grassroots ‘revolution’ against domestic violence in Papua New Guinea – which will help to fundamentally change a society and nation and hopefully become a model for change on the global stage. It’s a movement which has already attracted the attention, empathy, and support of a host of the sport’s biggest international names.

I am Max Uechtritz, an independent filmmaker who has worked on five continents as a broadcast journalist. More details below.

Our film will have a critical social legacy as a tangible showcase of how to address the cause, rather than the symptoms, of a dreadful scourge. It could become part of PNG schools’ curricula, an ongoing catalyst for countrywide education to give one half the population – girls and women – the same opportunities and benefits as the other half.

As Kessy Sawang, one of only two women in PNG’s parliament, says: “One of our greatest shames is gender inequality, violence and injustice to women and girls. It is a burden that about four million women and girls, half of our population, carry as a weight every day”.

The extended trailer above helps explain the Pink Nose Revolution and the decades-long crusade by its instigator, PNG surfing boss Andy Abel and there’s more below. But, firstly, a short personal introduction and explanation why funding support is urgently needed because of a looming event that needs to be filmed as an important segment of the documentary.

I am a former foreign correspondent who worked in 30 countries on five continents and a former Director of News and Current Affairs at Australia’s national broadcaster, the ABC, and Nine Network News Director. Among my other senior roles before setting up as an independent filmmaker was running global documentaries and current affairs as Director of Programmes at Al Jazeera English. The Pink Nose Revolution in PNG is as good and worthy a social movement I have come across in forty years in journalism. Anywhere. Yet, inexplicably, I have been unable to attract funding support for the film from relevant institutions, government departments or business houses.

I began filming this story in 2017, when the cream of world surfers gathered for the historic inaugural world longboard world championship event in PNG. The men’s winner, the USA’s multiple world champion Taylor Jensen, described it as the best tournament he’d surfed in 17 years on the circuit: in terms of crowds, surf, cultural awareness - and the message of equality the whole event embodied.

Another world champion from Brazil, Phil Rajzman, told us on camera: “I would like to see the pink nose revolution extend to my country Brazil and other places around the planet and I am proud that my sport surfing is leading on this issue.”

COVID and then formal funding apathy has delayed follow-up filming. But Andy Abel and his surfing association colleague Sylvia Pascoe have never veered from their mission and, likewise, I have never and will never stop trying to tell this story. So, later this month I will fly to PNG to follow two high profile Hawaiian women surfers as they visit a remote coastal mecca to give surfing clinics and hold equality awareness sessions with local surfers and their communities. It’s all a great initiative of the US Embassy in Port Moresby which will host a follow-up seminar in the capital.

Below is part of what I wrote in funding pitches for this segment of the film:

Two famous Hawaiian women surfers will visit Papua New Guinea to help foster a grassroots revolution aimed at gender equality and addressing the scourge of domestic violence.

Pictured above right, world-renowned adventurer, surfer and environmentalist Alison Teal – dubbed the ‘Female Indiana Jones’ - has spent her career empowering women. She will be joined in PNG by Maluhia Kinimaka, part of an indigenous surfing royalty dynasty on the island of Kauai. They will visit the remote surfing crucible Vanimo, birthplace of a nascent equal opportunity movement in PNG dubbed The Pink Nose Revolution and hold surfing clinics and social awareness sessions for young girls and women. Their expedition to the coastal villages will be filmed as the second stage of a documentary by leading Australian journalist and filmmaker Max Uechtritz of Kundu Productions.

The documentary is a passion project by Uechtritz, himself PNG-born with an unbroken family connection to the country over 140 years and six generations. He was taken by the efforts of a local surfing administrator to use the purity of his tiny, burgeoning sport to address the rampart ugliness of domestic violence. That person is Andy Abel, president of the Surfing Association of PNG. When Abel realised a 30-year dream by staging a World Surfing League (WSL) longboard championship title event in PNG, Uechtritz was there with his cameras and interviewed a swag of international surfers – including several world champions - keen to lend their names to the social movement.

The ‘pink nose’ moniker for the revolution was derived from the pink paint on the noses of hundreds of surf boards donated to PNG clubs by Australian counterparts. Two decades ago, girls and women weren’t allowed to surf in PNG. Abel changed that in a personal, difficult, and sometimes dangerous crusade to convince surf clubs to change their constitutions and allow female office holders. Despite this, males still tended to monopolise donated boards and exclude females. So, Abel hit on the idea of painting the noses of half the boards pink for female use only. His movement grew to embrace social education about respect for women in a country where domestic violence is endemic. Other sporting codes and bodies have joined Abel and adopted the mantra that equality in the sporting arena inevitably will foster equality and respect in homes and the wider social environment.

The little girls, teenagers, and young women of Vanimo could have no better inspiration than Alison Teal and Maluhia Kinimaka.

Alison has been making waves for years as a champion for the environment and women’s empowerment and has documented her travels and protests on camera. She was two-months old when she began circumnavigating the globe with her parents. Her father was a roaming international photographer, so Alison was home-schooled for most of her life living modestly in remote areas of the world.

Maluhia could surf even before she could walk. Somewhere in her home on the Hawaiian island of Kauai, with a population of only 65 thousand, is a photo of her as a tiny little girl grinning from between her father's legs on his surfboard, riding one of her first waves. Her father Titus Kinimaka is a retired legendary big wave surfer who counts as a mentor Duke Kahanamoku, the father of surfing. Maluhia chose to pursue her academic gifts at Stanford University, graduating with a degree in Atmosphere and Energy Engineering in 2018. She now works as a structural engineer and architect on Kauai, while also surfing, traveling, and modelling.

Of course, our filming at Vanimo as previously at Tupira, will feature the stories of young Papua New Guinean girls and women, what they’ve overcome and how they have become role models in their communities. At Tupira we focused on wild card local Ruthie Kurumak (pictured above) who achieved her dream of surfing alongside the likes of then reigning world champion Tory Gilkerson (USA), Tupira tournament winner Chloe Calmon (Brazil), future triple world champion Honolua Blomfield of Hawaii, Australia’s Nava Young and French champion Justine Mauvin. We also featured young teacher Rose Sila whose family of five children and her husband “surf together to stay together" (pictured below).

In an interview, Justine Mauvin referred to domestic violence:” It’s a common issue and a worldwide issue but I didn’t know until now that we as surfers could help change things, so we all feel really happy and proud.”

This from Nava Young, daughter of surf legend Nat Young who herself spent six years in the top ten surfers in the world: “Domestic violence is a huge issue anywhere in the world, so the fact that they are raising awareness through surfing and through the pink nose revolution is inspiring. Anything that empowers women is just amazing.”

Progressive PNG female MP, Kessy Sawang, who’ll be part of our film, told an APEC meeting: “As a nation we have a moral duty to address the deficit of opportunities Papua New Guinea girls and women have and to empower them to realize their potential. Most of our girls and women live in a world they don’t want or deserve. We still have a long way to go in recognising and embracing women as equal partners and leaders who can lead, participate, and cultivate a vibrant society.

Easkey Britton, a renowned female Irish surfer, writer and scientist who campaigns for women’s rights and is an ambassador and advisor for the pink nose revolution said: “Surfing as a tool for positive change may perhaps become PNG’s greatest export. Instead of plundering and pillaging rare minerals and clear-felling ancient hardwoods, let’s invest in that — surfing as a tool for community building, sustainability, and women’s empowerment”

Andy Abel himself put it into perspective: “Domestic violence is a global issue and one that is undermining the fabric of all societies regardless of race, creed, or colour. We can be the agents of change." Andy is pictured below with Ruthie Kuumak.

A recent exciting development for Andy, and PNG, is that the heads of other sporting bodies are coming together with surfing to flesh out an umbrella all-sports ‘pink’ revolution.

We plan to run our film internationally, but I will ensure it is available for broadcast without licence fees in Papua New Guinea and will also offer it to the national carrier Air Niugini for their in-flight viewing. Importantly, as mentioned, it will be available to the PNG education department for curricula use through viewings and a dedicated website. The film could kick off a national grassroots conversation about domestic violence and be the founding basis of textbooks and courses. The Revolution Site could unite girls and boys and young women and men, a one-stop destination for stories, photos and even videos of achievements and progress.

"YOU CAN’T BE WHAT YOU CAN’T SEE"

We want our film to inspire and give hope. There’s a saying quoted by Australian Indigenous Test cricketer Scott Boland: “You can’t be what you can’t see”. It refers to public visibility of role models on the screen. In his case, he meant First Nations cricketers. In context with our film, we want to provide on-screen role models for PNG, like young Ruthie or supermum Rose from Tupira and like equality champions Kessy Sawang, Sylvia Pascoe, the international surfers and other girls and women we will profile for this documentary.

For the looming Vanimo leg of this film, the SAPNG has been generously supported with the provision of air tickets by the PNG Tourism Promotions Authority, Eric Mossman Uvovo. However, Kundu Productions needs to cover cinematographer fees, accommodation, and expenses for both this assignment and full production funding for future filming legs of the documentary in PNG and Brazil, and for video and audio post-production, editing and distribution. It should be noted that the Tupira 2017 film shoot was helped made possible with generous support from the Bank of South Pacific (BSP).

Donations will be warmly received and we’ll keep you in the loop on this exciting film project.

World Champion Tory Gilkerson (right) at Tupira PNG

'Pink Nose Revolution boards donated by Australians

Brazil's world champ Phil Rajzman at Tupira