Into the Storm

For kids from poor countries, sporting talent is potentially a way out of the ghetto; but of course, a chaotic home life is potentially a barrier to success. This documentary follows Jhonny Guerero, a young Peruvian surfer, as he tries to make his way in the world. There's some potential interest here, but as a story, it seems the action occurs offscreen. Jhonny misses an event, or doesn't perform well due to nerver, and then he shows up to another one and does great; meanwhile, we're told what may or may not be happening to distract him, but the narrative feels patchy. Perhaps obviously, the camera isn't present when Jhonny gets shot; but neither do we get a clear explanation of how competitive surfing works, and what Jhonny has to do to win. He seems a nice enough kid, but for all the talk of him "chasing his dream", this is a fairly mundane film.

I stumbled across this by accident and how glad I am that I did. Outstanding documentary about a kid from the Peru slums that finds a broken surfboard on the beach and decides that this might be his ticket out of the slums. Wonderful cinematography, emotional roller coaster. Tears throughout sadness and joy

A beautiful and inspirational little documentary. It made me cry at least through half of it.