AVAILABLE FORMATS: 10/70

Featuring eleven-time world surfing champion Kelly Slater, The Ultimate Wave Tahiti follows a quest to find the perfect wave-riding experience.  The film’s action focuses on Tahiti and the volcanic islands of French Polynesia, home to some of the world’s most challenging surfing and to astounding coral reef ecosystems at the turbulent interface between island and ocean.  The islands are also a homeland of traditional Polynesian seafaring culture and the art of surfing.

With their host, Tahitian surfer Raimana Van Bastolear, Kelly Slater and a group of friends seek out the best waves breaking on the reef at Tahiti’s famed surf site Teahupoo.  Kelly and Raimana share a passion for the waves, but different ideas about what surfing means to them: is it a modern competitive sport or an ancient Polynesian wave-riding art?  As the surf quest unfolds, the film explores the hidden forces at work shaping the waves and the islands that lie in their path.  The great waves arrive and surfing play becomes surfing survival as the riders tackle some of the biggest, heaviest surf on the planet.

NASA’s next era will be its greatest yet.  That is the clear “roadmap” painted by Journey To Space.  The film absolutely annihilates the perception that the space program died with the end of the Space Shuttle Program by showcasing the exciting plans NASA and the space community are working on, and the challenges they must overcome to carry out audacious missions such as landing astronauts on Mars and capturing asteroids.

By using extensive interviews with astronauts Chris Ferguson (Commander of the final shuttle mission) and Serena Aunon (a new astronaut chosen for future flights), Journey To Space gives a sweeping overview of past space accomplishments, current activities and future plans.

Journey To Space puts into historical context the magnificent contributions made by the Space Shuttle program and its intrepid space pioneers.  It uses the most spectacular space footage – including unique views of Earth and operations in space – such as deploying and repairing the Hubble Space Telescope.  It then goes on to show how the Shuttle launched and assembled the International Space Station (ISS).  Together, these programs have taught us how to live, build and conduct science in space.  The ISS will continue operating in space until 2024, and the film shows how it is building a foundation for the next giant leaps into space.

The film concludes with a fascinating, realistic scenario of how astronauts will actually get to Mars, live there for long duration, and then return home after a two-and-a-half-year mission.  This includes the new icons of the next chapter of space exploration:

– Orion is NASA’s first spacecraft designed to carry humans on long-duration deep space exploration missions throughout the solar system.

– Olympus, an inflatable transportation habitat, is an early concept 45- or 50-feet diameter module that would provide astronauts the work area and living space necessary for long-duration missions.  Smaller versions have already flown in space, and a full-scale version is shown undergoing ground testing.

– The Space Launch System (SLS), a new giant rocket, will carry spacecraft, Mars landers and ascent vehicles to place astronauts on the surface of Mars.  SLS will generate over nine million pounds of thrust and will launch hardware into orbit equivalent to the weight of 22 elephants.

Journey To Space will both inspire a new generation of young people to dream of new horizons in space, and engender a new appreciation for the accomplishments of the Space Shuttle Program among an older generation who came to take it for granted.

Journey To Space is co-produced and co-distributed by K2 Films, Inc. and Giant Screen Films and will be released in IMAX(R), Giant Screen and other specialty theaters in 2D and 3D.