Hometown Teen's Surfing Documentary Screens at Marina del Rey Film Fest

MARINA DEL REY, CA — The Marina del Rey Film Festival this past weekend featured a local teen director entering a film for the second consecutive year.

Former USC film student John Taschner's second offering is "Walls of Water," a documentary depicting surf riding on the 2016 El Nino storm surf.

Taschner, 19, was on location in California during the past El Nino winter storms and more recently in western Australia in June to surf and film 40- to 50-foot waves that hit Margaret River and the western Australian storm surf, according to Aaron Garcia, a spokesman for the filmmaker's production company.

"The 40, 50-foot waves, combined with light winds and huge wave periods, are seen once every 10 years," said meteorologist Paul Vivers.

Though the documentary didn't win, Taschner's first entry into the Marina Del Rey Festival was last year's "Gen RX," a dystopian action thriller set in an alternative version of America in 2016.

The seven-minute film, written in less than two weeks by Taschner, imagines a society in which pills are given to citizens by the government to help maintain health and happiness and combat the Ebola virus.

The establishing shot in the film shows billboards, metal detectors and video displays blinking "Take Your Pill" across an urban landscape.

"The goal of the film (was) to drive increased awareness and support of the fight against Ebola in West Africa," Taschner said.

The festival was produced in association with the American Film Market and the Independent Film and Television Alliance, a global association of the independent motion picture and television industry.

— City News Service, photo courtesy of John Taschner