SHACC’s latest exhibit is a tribute photographer, author, environmentalist, IMAX film producer, and surf filmmaker Greg MacGillivray. Our rotating exhibit space is filled with photos, movie stills, film clips, surfboards from surfers featured in his various films—and even an IMAX camera. 

Life changed for Greg MacGillivray on the day he turned 13.  His parents gave him a birthday present, a plastic Kodak 8-millimeter movie camera, the “key” that would open doors to both creativity and fun.

The child of native Californians, Greg found himself in the perfect place at the perfect time, a time characterized by a rising tide of optimism.  

Over the years, he developed a unique understanding of what works and what doesn’t when it comes to telling stories in film, lessons he learned from Jim Freeman, Stanley Kubrick, and his dad, the three mentors who are largely responsible for MacGillivray Freeman Films becoming the only documentary film company to earn more than $1 billion in box office revenues.

The most important thing to the MacGillivray Freeman team was “to keep it fun,” while producing honest films; films of the highest level of accuracy and integrity, but not preachy or boring, that celebrate the wonders of the world with a powerful subtext of conservation. They had a simple business philosophy: Keep costs low and don’t worry about pretension or image. And put everything into the quality of the films while always projecting a positive attitude.

Greg’s first film was A Cool Wave of Color (1964), followed by The Performers (1965). In the meantime, Jim Freeman had produced Let There Be Surf (1963), Outside the Third Dimension 3D (1964), and The Glass Wall (1965). Then in 1967 they teamed up to create Free and Easy and Waves of Change (1969) which was reworked to become The Sunshine Sea (1970). Their magnum opus surf movie was Five Summer Stories which saw the highest attendance for a surf film since The Endless Summer released eight years earlier. “You’ve made a beautiful, experiential film,” Bruce Brown told Greg, calling it “a new kind of surfing film.” And like The Endless Summer, Five Summer Stories had its own unique soundtrack, featuring Beach Boys tunes (which they donated) and original music by the local Laguna Beach based band, Honk, which elevated the viewing experience and became that generation’s surf movie anthem.

The success of Five Summer Stories allowed them to recoup the costs of making the film while establishing a new trend: distributing 15% of the net profit among the 35 surfers in the film. The film also had an extended life span, being updated regularly until 1979 (eventually morphing into Five Summer Stories Plus Four).

Next MacGillivray and Freeman were hired by Hollywood producers to do second-unit work on Jonathan Livingston Seagull (1973) and The Towering Inferno (1974). They made their first IMAX film, To Fly!, in 1976 but tragically just before the movie debuted, Jim Freeman was killed in a helicopter accident. Eventually Greg would go on to produce 40 IMAX films, two of which—The Living Sea (1995) and Dolphins (2000)—received Oscar nominations. 

Hollywood Don't Surf!, a documentary MacGillivray co-directed with former Surfer editor Sam George, explored the strained relationship between mainstream big-budget moviemakers and surfing. Ironically, Greg was the water unit director for John Milius’ Big Wednesday (1978) which was initially panned by critics and audiences alike, but overtime would become a cult classic and make the top ten surf movie list.

Today Greg continues to make IMAX films, with many of his family members involved in the process. He has filmed in every corner of the globe and touched billions of lives. His other passion is conservation and in 2012, his team launched One World One Ocean, a campaign designed to change the way people see the ocean and to spark a global movement to protect it.

Loaned items are courtesy of MacGillivray Freeman Films. 

Barry K. Haun
SHACC Curator & Creative Director