Andy Warhol's 45-Year-Old Surf Film To Screen in La Jolla

Andy Warhol is returning to La Jolla.

A little known Andy Warhol film titled San Diego Surf, which was shot in La Jolla more than 40 years ago, will screen at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego in La Jolla in March.

The 90-minute film was first released in October at The Museum of Modern Art in New York during an international film festival. 

San Diego Surf, which was shot in May 1968 by iconic pop artist Andy Warhol, will surely attract beach bums, art buffs and cinephiles.

In July, Michael Hermann, the director of licensing at the Andy Warhol Foundation told Patch, “While his shooting a surf film in La Jolla may sound like an odd fit, San Diego Surf is quite consistent with the arc of many of his other films, which feature the drama of beautiful misfits getting into trouble, having sex and doing drugs."

The Foundation offered the following synopsis:

It was filmed in color on 16mm with two cameras, manned by Andy Warhol and Paul Morrissey, and featured Superstars Viva, Taylor Mead, Louis Waldon, Joe Dallesandro, Tom Hompertz, Ingrid Superstar, and Eric Emerson, plus Nawana Davis and others. Its loose narrative concerns an unhappily married couple (Taylor Mead and Viva) with a baby who rent their beach house to a group of surfers.

After it was shot, it was only partially edited and never released.

Soon after filming San Diego Surf, Warhol was shot. He survived, but for unknown reasons, never finished the film, according to Hermann.

MCAD said Warhol produced more than 4,000 reels of film between 1963 and 1971, when the works were withdrawn from circulation. The local museum added that in the early 1980s a project began to preserve and re-release his films. 

And in 1995, the Andy Warhol Foundation commissioned Paul Morrissey, under the supervision of Foundation curator Dara Meyers-Kingsley, to complete the editing, based on existing notes and the rough cut.

Also read: Local Surfboard Shaper Creates Andy Warhol's 'Quiver'

“I am thrilled to see a new Andy Warhol film being released to the public after more than 40 years.  Shot in the style of his late color films, it features two of Warhol’s Superstars - Viva at her most radiant and Taylor Mead at his most radical,” said Geralyn Huxley, The Andy Warhol Museum in an announcement earlier this year. “We are proud to extend our mission to promote and share the work of Warhol with our global audience with this vibrant work.”

San Diego Surf will screen at the MCASD's La Jolla location at 5:30 p.m., Saturday, March 16, 2013. For more information visit MCASD online.