Bull Kotter’s effort to teach surfing to homeless youth in Lahaina is the focus of a film, “Uncle Bully’s Surf Skool,” that will screen at the 43rd Hawaii International Film Festival at the Maui Arts & Cultural Center on Oct. 28. After the Aug. 8 wildfire destroyed Kotter’s home and much of Lahaina, “things changed overnight,” filmmaker Leah Warshawski. She and her co-director husband, Todd Soliday, shot additional footage to tell more of Kotter’s story and pay tribute to Lahaina. — LEAH WARSHAWSKI photo
When she began working on a documentary about Lahaina surfing teacher Bull Kotter, director Leah Warshawski had no idea that her resulting film, “Uncle Bully’s Surf Skool,” would turn into a tribute to the devastated town.
Screening at the 43rd Hawaii International Film Festival at the Maui Arts & Cultural Center on Oct. 28, the film was born after Warshawski became intrigued with Kotter’s work with kids in need after taking a surf lesson.
“I went to college on Oahu and ended up moving to Maui and living in Kula,” she explained. “I took a surf lesson with Bully with a friend of mine from college and found out that, right before the COVID shutdown, he was doing a free surf camp for kids on the island. Then I found out that he was also mentoring and teaching some of the homeless kids who used to live at Mala Wharf.”
Uncle Bully, as he is known, has taught thousands of students through his Bully’s Surf School. He managed to survive the COVID shutdown — then he lost his home in the Lahaina fire.
“My husband and I tell stories for a living, and we’re always looking for characters who we know can make a huge impact in the world, and who we know have been through enough challenges in their own life to get where they are and Bully is one of those people,” Warshawski said.
Collaborating on the project with her co-director husband, Todd Soliday, they began filming three years ago. Her previous films include “Big Sonia,” about a Holocaust survivor, and “Finding Hillywood,” about young Rwandan filmmakers after the genocide.
“We started filming at the beginning of the COVID lockdown when he stopped teaching tourists,” Warshawski continued. “We finished six months ago and made a 30-minute film. We started entering it into some festivals, but then the fires happened and Bully lost his home. Ironically, he was teaching homeless kids before how to surf and now he is homeless. But he doesn’t see it that way. He sees it as an opportunity. He’s very resilient.”
The filmmakers realized that Bully’s story needed a coda, and they would have to shoot new footage.
“A lot of things changed overnight and we thought we have to change the film. We need to add 10 minutes,” she said. “The fires dictated that we tell part of that story and talk about what he’s doing now. In the wake of the fires, to keep going, to keep mentoring, keep teaching, and keep being a role model. And so the film now has become kind of this like ode to Lahaina.”
Previously filming around the 505 Front Street complex, Warshawski said, “a lot of the families that we filmed lived in Lahaina. A lot of them lost everything, including Bully and his wife, who had just bought and closed on a house the week before.”
The Kula couple carried on filming.
“We filmed Bully post-fire and filmed at a surf event up on the North Shore for the first time that a lot of the kids were getting back into the water,” Warshawski said. “And we filmed the paddle-out at Ukumehame.”
Reflecting on the fire, Kotter said in the film, “Life is the most precious gift. I don’t feel homeless. I have the ocean that takes care of me.”
Warshawski and Soliday completed their film just in time for its Oahu premiere on Oct. 12 at the Hawaii International Film Festival. It includes music by Lily Meola and Erik Janson.
As to the film’s overarching message, Warshawski said, “one of the main themes is to be present and to be a mentor and a role model and do what you can for one person, if nothing else. We need role models. We need mentors now more than ever, and that’s a huge theme in the film. That’s what Bully is all about, just trying to be present and give your time.
“Another message is just about resilience and that kids are typically resilient, but they’re also going through a lot of trauma. I think now everyone’s going through a lot of trauma. And so a message of kindness, being compassionate.”
“Uncle Bully’s Surf Skool” also brings the issue of homelessness into focus. “Homelessness is rampant in our community,” Kotter reported in the film.
“A lot of people never knew that there were homeless who lived on Maui or anywhere in Hawaii before,” Warshawski said. “It was kind of hidden in plain sight before COVID. Our film brought a little bit of that to light. But now it’s just amplified everything. The film brings light to the issue of homelessness on Maui, and maybe Hawaii as well.”
“Uncle Bully’s Surf Skool” will screen on Oct. 28, as part of the 43rd Hawaii International Film Festival. Films will be shown Oct. 27-29. Tickets are free for all films thanks to sponsorships but preregistration is required online only at MauiArts.org. The MACC will be collecting donations for the Maui Food Bank during the three-day period.
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