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Albert "Alby" Falzon (born 1945) is an Australian filmmaker, photographer and publisher in the surfing sub-culture.
Falzon grew up in the beachside suburb of Maroubra in Sydney, Australia. He did not begin surfing until the age of 14, when the Falzon family moved to the New South Wales Central Coast. He currently resides in Eungai, New South Wales
Falzon has always appreciated the power of music in his films and directed Morning of the Earth (1972), an influential surf film. The film portrays surfers living in spiritual harmony with nature, making their own boards and homes as they travel in search of the perfect wave across Australia's north-east coast, Bali and Hawaii. Falzon's inaugural feature film was the first Australian film to receive a "gold record" for soundtrack album sales.
A passion for travel, particularly to remote and spectacular regions of the world, has been a major influence on the themes of Falzon's work. A six-part documentary series focused on traditional festivals in Far Eastern countries, such as Sri Lanka, India, Burma, Ladakh and Tibet, and has been sold in over eighty countries worldwide. And not all locations were easily accessible. The journey through Tibet to the mystical mountain of Kailas was an arduous two weeks in sub zero temperatures, there the film crew recorded for the very first time the sacred Wesak Festival.
In 1982, Falzon directed "Khumba Mela (same as it ever was)", a 90-minute piece filmed in the waterways of Kashmir in India about a Saddhu's pilgrimage. He approached Brian Eno in London about using some of his music as part of the soundtrack. After viewing the film Eno commented that he'd "never seen a film that was more suited as a vehicle for his work". Brian Eno and Harold Budd are both in the soundtrack, along with music from Pink Floyd and Talking Heads. He entered this film into the Cannes Film Festival with the title "Crystal Voyager".
Another film "The Road to Timbuktu" followed a path from Casablanca across the searing Sahara Desert to Timbuktu.
Falzon's twelve part series "Festivals of the World" has sold to over eighty countries. He has also directed two long version music videos for Chris Blackwell founder of Island Records and was DOP on "Women of Spirit" a one-hour television program filmed in India, NY and London. He has written a series of children's programs and has completed a screenplay for a feature film, tentatively titled The Dreamtime.
He recently filmed two surfing programs and co-produced a one-hour program on Nicholas Roerich a Russian artist who painted extraordinarily beautiful spiritual painting of The Himalayas at the beginning of the twentieth century.
GLOBUS—The Meaning of Light is a recently completed film collaboration with Jeff Hornbaker.
Falzon's career in filmmaking was a natural progression from international still photography, and later combined with magazine publishing, in Australia, Israel and the island of Bali in Indonesia. In 1970, he was co-founder and publisher of the surfing newspaper Tracks , with David Elfick and John Witzig.
He is presently working on three books:
Robyn Davidson is an Australian writer best known for her 1980 book Tracks, about her 2,700 km trek across the deserts of Western Australia using camels. Her career of travelling and writing about her travels has spanned 40 years. Her memoir is to be published in late 2023.
Frank Scheffer is a Dutch cinematographer and producer of documentary film, mostly known for his work Conducting Mahler (1996) on the 1995 Mahler Festival in Amsterdam with Claudio Abbado, Riccardo Chailly, Riccardo Muti and Simon Rattle.
Matsyendranātha, also known as Matsyendra, Macchindranāth, Mīnanātha and Minapa was a saint and yogi in a number of Buddhist and Hindu traditions. He is traditionally considered the revivalist of hatha yoga as well as the author of some of its earliest texts. He is also seen as the founder of the natha sampradaya, having received the teachings from Shiva. He is especially associated with Kaula Shaivism. He is also one of the eighty-four mahasiddhas and considered the guru of Gorakshanath, another important figure in early hatha yoga. He is revered by both Hindus and Buddhists and is sometimes regarded as an incarnation of Avalokiteśvara.
Geshe Ngawang Tashi Bapu a.k.a. Lama Tashi is former Principal Chant Master of Drepung Loseling Monastery, one of the largest monasteries of the Dalai Lama. In 2006, Lama Tashi was nominated for the Grammy Award for his album "Tibetan Master Chants" in the "Best Traditional World Music". Through this achievement, he has created the record of the first Buddhist Monk for Grammy Nomination in solo performance, and the first North-East Indian to be nominated for the prestigious Grammy Award the highest honour of Music in the world. Lama Tashi led Long Life Puja Chanting for the 14th Dalai Lama, the HE 99th and 100th Gaden Tripa Rinpoches and many more highly revered masters. The Long Life Puja is a very popular traditional healing ceremony that involves a multiphonic chant performance to heal the listeners and increase their life span. Lama Tashi also led the chanting performance of the Traditional Great Prayer Festival at Bodh Gaya presided over by the 14th Dalai Lama in 2002. Lama Tashi served as the Principal and the Director of the Central Institute of Himalayan Culture Studies, Dahung, India from 2003-2012 and 2012-2018 respectively. While at the Institute, he taught Buddhist Philosophy at University level students.
Tracks is a monthly Australian surf magazine, promoting itself as "the surfers' bible." It is published by Nextmedia.
Morning of the Earth is a 1971 classic surf film by Alby Falzon and David Elfick.
Liquid Time is a 2002 avant-garde surf film that focuses solely on the fluid forms of tubing waves. Brothers Monty Webber and Greg Webber revived a childhood passion for perfectly formed tiny waves by filming the wake of their runabout as it pealed along the edge of a river sandbank. The 20-minute film received the Cinematography Award at the Saint Jean de Luz Surf Film Festival.
Parikrama or Pradakshina is clockwise circumambulation of sacred entities, and the path along which this is performed, as practiced in the Indic religions – Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism and Jainism. In Buddhism, it refers only to the path along which this is performed. Typically, in Indic-religions the parikrama is done after completion of traditional worship and after paying homage to the deity. Parikrama must be done with dhyāna.
GyutoTantric University is one of the great monastic institutions of the Gelug Order.
Tamam Shud is an Australian psychedelic, progressive and surf rock band, which formed in Newcastle in 1964. The initial line-up were known as The Four Strangers with Eric Connell on bass guitar, Dannie Davidson on drums, Gary Johns on rhythm guitar and Alex "Zac" Zytnik on lead guitar. At the end of that year Johns was replaced by Lindsay Bjerre on guitar and vocals as they trimmed their name to the Strangers. By late 1965 they had become the Sunsets. They took the name Tamam Shud in late 1967 after replacing Connell with Peter Barron on bass guitar. The group released two albums, Evolution (1969) – after which Tim Gaze replaced Zytnik on lead guitar – and Goolutionites and the Real People (1970) before disbanding in 1972. After a lengthy hiatus they reformed in 1993 to release a third album, Permanent Culture in 1994, but disbanded again in 1995. Beginning in 2008 the group worked together periodically on new material: it took eight years to complete their fourth album, Eight Years of Moonlight.
Hemis Monastery is a Himalayan Buddhist monastery (gompa) of the Drukpa Lineage, in Hemis 9n the bank of Indus river, Ladakh, India. Situated 45 km from Leh, it was re-established in 1672 by the Ladakhi king Sengge Namgyal. The annual Hemis festival honouring Padmasambhava is held there in early June.
Craig Pruess is an American composer, musician, arranger and gold & platinum record producer who has been living in Britain since 1973. His career has covered diverse areas including: record production for international stars such as Anu Malik, Sir Cliff Richard, Sarah Brightman, Sheila Walsh ; musical arrangements for Massive Attack, Def Leppard, Bond; feature film soundtrack music ; world music producing, performing and arranging for international acts such as Massive Attack, Katie Melua, Manic Street Preachers, Def Leppard and Pascal Obispo; television music and also arranging, sitar and sound design work ; television and film advertising/corporate music ; lecturing and teaching; concert performing ; sound engineering, synthesizer and computer music programming, sound design and music technology innovations.
Crystal Voyager is a 1973 Australian surf film directed by David Elfick. It was filmed by Albert Falzon, written and narrated by surfer, photographer and filmmaker George Greenough who had previously made the 1970 surfing film The Innermost Limits of Pure Fun.The soundtrack was written and produced and performed by G. Wayne Thomas and the 'Crystal Voyager Band".
David Elfick is an Australian film and television writer, director, producer and occasional actor. He is known for his association with writer-director Phillip Noyce, with whom he has collaborated on films including Newsfront (1978) and Rabbit-Proof Fence (2002).
The Byron Bay Film Festival is a popular AACTA Awards accredited independent awards-based film event held in the late Australian summer at the Byron Community & Cultural Centre, in the coastal town of Byron Bay.
OTHON, a.k.a. Othon Mataragas, is a London-based Greek composer, pianist, songwriter, producer, DJ and club promoter. He is mostly known for combining classically infused composition with electronic productions and experimental songwriting. Apart from his solo work, he has collaborated with notable artists such as Wolfgang Tillmans, Marc Almond, David Tibet, Peter Christopherson, Ron Athey, Ernesto Tomasini and Dan Hillier.
Ali Ibrahim "Ali Farka" Touré was a Malian singer and multi-instrumentalist, and one of the African continent's most internationally renowned musicians. His music blends traditional Malian music and its derivative, African American blues and is considered a pioneer of African desert blues. Touré was ranked number 76 on Rolling Stone's list of "The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" and number 37 on Spin magazine's "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time".
The Human Experience is a 2008 documentary produced by Grassroots Films and directed by Charles Kinnane. The film tells the story of brothers Clifford and Jeffrey Azize and their travels as they search for answers to the question, "What does it mean to be human?". Their friends Michael Campo and Matthew Sanchez participate in some of the travels. The film is divided into three sections, covering the experiences of Jeffrey and his friends in New York, Peru, and Ghana. The Human Experience is rated PG-13.
Taylor Steele is a filmmaker. Steele has been involved in the surf film industry for over two decades. He has won awards as both director and producer. His production company, Poor Specimen, has launched the careers of some of surfing’s most influential figures and has played a role in the success of bands such as Blink-182, Pennywise, and Jack Johnson, who were introduced in Steele's early movies.
Uluwatu is a region on the south-western tip of the Bukit Peninsula of Bali, Indonesia. It is home to the Pura Luhur Uluwatu Temple.
