Raggari Films Presents
A documentary film by Minna Dufton

When champion Portuguese big wave surfer Joana Andrade has to conquer her fear of drowning, she finds herself locked in combat with long-buried demons from her past under a frozen Finnish lake and with the help of her new friend, the Finnish free diver Johanna Nordblad.

BIG vs SMALL is a modern-day fairytale stretching from the raging monster waves in the south to the dark stillness of a far-north, frozen Finnish lake; it’s about power and strength on top of the water, and facing demons under it. It’s about trust, it’s about letting go, and it’s about what happens when two elite female champions share their extraordinary talent with each other. Because, the battle isn’t on the wave.

When Filmmaker Minna Dufton started her documentary about elite big wave champion surfer, the “tiny fighter” Joana Andrade who rides the powerhouse waves at Nazaré, Portugal (home of the 100ft World Record Wave surfed by Garrett McNamara), little did she know Joana harbored a deep secret.
By way of explaining the safety equipment big wave surfers use, Joana shared her deep fear of drowning, something many big wave surfers share. In that one extraordinary moment, a remarkable cinematic serendipity would unfold and bring together the tiny Portuguese surfer with Finnish world champion free diver, Johanna Nordblad for the most unusual of training sessions.

Minna Dufton -Director Statement
With my roots deeply in journalism, I always do a lot of research into my films. With BIG vs SMALL, it started in 2017 from a BBC News article about female elite big wave surfers in the US fighting for equality in thesport.
Prior to this, I’d never heard of such a thing as people surfing waves of 15 to 30 metres high. I became hooked on watching big wave surfing on YouTube and eventually found myself on the west coast of Portugal learning to surf. I’d never made a film about surfing before so I spent
some time getting to know the sport and the people in it.

In March 2018, I interviewed Portuguese big wave rider and athlete João de Macedo, about the dark side of big wave surfing. I wanted to know why anyone would want to surf the killer waves of Nazaré and what was the key to surviving those scary wipe-outs in them. It had to be deeply psychological. I knew I wanted to profile a female big wave surfer – I really wanted to know why any woman would put herself in a situation as terrifying as what João described. Ironically, João told me that the
best way to train for getting submerged inside a big wave, was to free dive under ice. I filed this interesting if odd bit of news away, and started looking for a subject.
I kept asking around and heard that there was indeed one Portuguese woman surfing in Nazaré and at that time she was one of only two women in Europe surfing and competing on the big waves there.
She was Joana Andrade. As soon as I got home from my first trip to Portugal, I emailed Joana introducing myself and thankfully, she emailed me back. Three months later we met in her hometown of Ericeira and I filmed a demo of her in the garage of her surf school. That day I knew I
just had to find a way of making a film about her – not the easiest of tasks with us living on the opposite ends of Europe. I started out making a film about how a tiny woman conquers her
biggest fears surfing the world’s biggest wave. In the end, I ended up making a film about liberation from a traumatic experience. My creative and cinematic approach for BIG vs SMALL started to take shape the day Joana told me the real reason why she surfs big waves: About how five
years before we met, she hated herself because of what had happened to
her in her past.

Adventure Club is Tull Stories’ new regular release programme, bringing the best of outdoor/adventure-themed films to cinemas.

Adventure Club films tell unexpected stories from around the World, told from unexpected perspectives.

We know that there are communities around these amazing films and that it’s now more important than ever to bring them to our cinemas.