NADIR: A documentary about surfing in Newport, Rhode Island...
2025 · 10m · USA
Directed by Jack Galvin
Genres: comedy, documentary, essay film
Tones: absurdist, contemplative, humorous
What begins as a documentary about Rhode Island surfing detours into one man's increasingly elaborate quest to dispose of a gifted surfboard. Along the way: license plate rants, kitsch commerce, and the awkward physics of saving face.
Picked by Felix
The scouts
A surf doc that derails into a license-plate grievance and a surfboard disposal scheme is precisely the kind of unserious commitment I respect. The title alone is doing more than most films do in twelve minutes.
Galvin starts a documentary about Rhode Island surfing and abandons it to chase the petty epic of disposing of a gifted surfboard — that bait-and-switch is the whole point. Errol Morris by way of a license-plate rant; I'd happily watch it.
Loving the bait-and-switch: a Rhode Island surfing doc that openly abandons its subject to chase a guy trying to ditch a gifted surfboard. The license-plate-rant detour and the soapy gifted-board flashback show Galvin's working with real comic structure, not just goofs.
Reviews
An endearing snapshot of a man going to great lengths to save face.