Dr. Dorian ‘Doc’ Paskowitz is a Stanford educated MD, who decided in the mid-1950s that he had no interest in money or status, and just wanted to surf.  He found the perfect wife (on his third try, no less) and the two settled into a wandering bohemian lifestyle consisting of surfing, providing free health-care to those most in need, and sharing his ideas on the natural world and the powers of holistic healing.  His story would make for a fairly rote doc, were it not for the fact that he and his wife had nine children with them on their pilgrimage.  They lived in a tiny trailer through their formative years, being home-schooled, an experience that introduced both a wealth of opportunity and immeasurable damage to the children’s lives.

Their story is told in Surfwise, the latest effort from celebrated documentarian Doug Pray (Hype!, Big Rig).  Throughout, Pray does an amazing job of piecing together their outrageous childhood while leaving a lasting impression of every parent and child involved.  He wades confidently into sensitive topics like physical and emotional abuse, aided immeasurably by the amazingly open and adjusted-seeming Paskowitz clan.  His subjects bare all, discussing their father's violent temper and their parents' loud, nightly sex sessions with a quiet humility, almost a sense of wonderment that it's their own strange life they are describing.

As Salvador (the seventh son) recalls, “Most parents say ‘Go to school.  Don’t go swimming with sharks, that’s dangerous.’  Our parents said, ‘you can go swimming with sharks, but you’re not fuckin’ going to school – that shit’s dangerous!”  This sums up Doc’s attitude, and the patriarch is quickly identified as the architect of the bizarre family dynamic.  However, the children – and the unique and complicated relationships they’ve forged with each other and their old man – are the real heart of the film.  They feel both blessed and ripped off and it affects every aspect of their lives.  Pray has done a beautiful job of exploring their fragile relationships and presenting them in an honest and intimate way.  The result is an amazingly textured portrait of the power of family, and the impact of a father’s imposed will on his kids.