Into The Storm is a documentary that follows Jhonny Guerrero from age 14 to 19 as overcomes life struggles in hopes of becoming a world champion surfer. After watching the film, I had to get director Adam Brown on the line to discuss the film, how difficult it was to make, and where Jhonny is now. My review for the film is published and available to read here on the ForReel site.

Before the interview transcript, I’d like to mention AltoPeru.org, an organization that helps underprivileged communities in Lima and also contributed to helping make Into The Storm possible.

Thomas Stoneham-Judge

Yeah. Hey everyone, Thomas here with ForReel Movie News And Reviews. And I am joined today by Adam Brown, the director of this new documentary called Into the Storm. Adam, thanks again for for joining me on this call and excited to talk about this film.

Adam Brown

Hi, Thomas, thank you so much for having me.

Thomas Stoneham-Judge

Yeah. So I want to first congratulate you on the accolades that this film has already received. It premiered at the Brooklyn Film Festival and just got a bunch of awards, right?

Adam Brown

Yeah, that's right. No, we were really lucky there actually. And yeah, it was great turn of events, actually, because we sort of finished the film just as locked down was starting and there was a bit of a depressing thing. One by one event festival started canceling but, so Brooklyn stuck to their guns. And I thought, well, that'd be a great festival to sort of open with anyway, so we went ahead with what they were doing and with with no expectations, and yeah, it worked out super good.

Thomas Stoneham-Judge

Yeah, that's great. I mean, it's a fantastic documentary, very well put together and a very inspiring story as well. So, definitely deserves all the accolades that it gets, and all the awards that it has earned and will hopefully keep earning. Um, can you can you just tell us a little bit about what into the storm is about?

Adam Brown

Okay, so basically Into The Storm is following the story of Jhonny Guerrero over five years. Jhonny Guerrero, who lives in Lima, Peru in a pretty poor, deprived area of the city, as he tries to make it as a pro surfer and raise his family out of poverty. And it's all his sort of trials and tribulations along the way, which gets sort of pretty, pretty extreme. And, yeah, I guess sort of the best equivalent is it's kind of a Hoop Dreams of surfing is kind of how I just described it to people.

Thomas Stoneham-Judge

Yeah, absolutely. And like I said, very inspiring story. I mean, so the documentary, I read that you guys spent five years filming this. So it covers about five years of Jhonny's life, right?

Adam Brown

Yes, we filmed it from…or I filmed him from 14 to yet just shy of 19, I guess - he was turning 19 ,so, I never sort of plan to film him for such a long period. But, the story kept evolving, and elements sort of maybe kept keep wanting to come back for more, and plus, he’d experienced so much misfortune that I...I kept thinking, well, for sure his luck is going to change soon. And we're going to have, you know, some kind of positive outcome, perhaps, but, it was a bit of a lottery really and nobody really plans in five years filming anything, but there you go.

Thomas Stoneham-Judge

Right and, you know, that's honestly one of the reasons that I wanted to have this interview with you because watching the documentary, it just seems like there's so many things that could have gone wrong, or that could have changed or that wouldn't have worked out the way that it did to put this movie together. I guess I want to start with first of all, how did you guys come across this story? Like, what was it that prompted you to start documenting Jhonny Guerrero’s life at 14.

Adam Brown

Okay, so I've always been interested in surfing. I surfed a bit myself so the subject matter was naturally appealing to me. But I was out in Peru anyway, filming with swach, who were helping Sofia set up her surf academy at the time. That was kind of my introduction to the world of surfing in Peru. And I was sort of doing corporate-y type filming for them, but with one eye on, sort of, that there might be a bigger, more interesting story to tell. And initially, I started filming just with a group of kids who are trying to get into Sophia Milanovich - this is this former world champion who lives in Peru - they were trying to get into her surf Academy, and they were from quite a range of backgrounds. And I thought well, that's pretty interesting. You know, it's definitely worth sort of following that, sort of following their dreams. But, the most interesting most compelling one was Jhonny Guerrero. And initially, I hadn't met him, but I kept hearing about him. But, I'd met all the other kids, but everyone kept saying all this is there's this incredible, talented kid, he lives in the barrios in Lima. But he's taught himself to surf and he's just this incredible talent. And I was like, wow, he sounds amazing, we should film him. And everyone sort of said, oh no, he's really hard to find and sort of - there’d be all these rumors - he's robbing people on the beach and stuff. And so I said, oh yeah, we should film it anyway though!

In the end, he got into Sofia's Academy. I mean, he was a shoo in because he was so talented, and it was all sort of raw natural ability. And I was kind of drawn to his story. And so I started naturally spending a lot of my time filming with him. And then so the more I got to know him and the more I found out about his story, the more I was like, wow, this kid is amazing, everything that he's sort of come through already just to be on a surfboard and being this good is amazing. He had so little in the way of opportunity and support compared to a lot of kids he was surfing against. That alone, that sort of Underdog Story appealed to me. And he obviously got caught up in this drive by shooting as well. And, you know, we suddenly realized that there was - or I certainly was that there was all this whole other world still going on that I mean, that I touched on, but, was much deeper than I really understood. And, yeah, so that was sort of one of the turning points of filming, when I realized I had to commit to it more seriously.

Thomas Stoneham-Judge

Right, and it's - it is interesting watching the story, because, like you said, you can see in footage that you capture - which, by the way is beautiful, I think it's such a gorgeous film to watch, just from, like a cinematography perspective. So, you know, kudos on that. But you can, when you're watching the story, you can see, there are moments of - um - of triumph and great things that he does and how good he is as a surfer. But you also see the disappointments and there are components of Jhonny's life that - you know, obviously, he comes from a very challenging background with his father being in prison, his his family, being in, you know, the less fortunate part of the city. But there are also disappointments that just kind of fall on him as well. There was one part in the movie where he was supposed to show up for a competition and doesn't. There's times where he's holding himself back. And that's so interesting, to me and authentic to the story. That it's not just, he's constantly a victim of circumstance, he also has to kind of get over the challenges of being an adolescent. And I guess the question that I'm leading to, is, were you ever concerned in this five years that this story wouldn't pan out? Or maybe there were factors that would prevent the story from having a happy ending?

Adam Brown

Um yes, so I guess I spent most of that five years really worried because I was committing so much time and resources and money that I didn't really have to it. So yeah, my five years of like, constant worry, and then constant worry if anyone would believe in the story and wanted to help me sort of finish it and get it out there in the world. So, yeah, that was always there and, you know, that's just from the sort of filmmaking side of things, but also is there enough story there? And, would it be a happy ending - I mean, it didn't necessarily need to be a happy ending, I think, for the story to have value. I think just Jhonny's struggle has value in it, itself. But you're right, though, you know, when I heard he got shot, first of all, it was sort of Chinese whispers, and, yeah, the first rumors out were that Jhonny had been killed. And, you know, there was a very real possibility that could have happened as well. So, that was pretty heavy moment. And then you're right, yeah, Jhonny had a lot of - and still does have a lot of - you know - I guess some - what's the word - he has a lot of issues with lack of self confidence, self doubt, which come because of his shaky foundations of his upbringing; the absence of parents whilst he was growing up, the poverty, so much uncertainty and lack of support in his life and when you build on those shaky foundations, you become sort of a kinda shaky adult as he was becoming and that was that was really sad to see because I could see that the other kids with much better, more supportive backgrounds had so much more confidence in themselves, and you're right, that manifested itself in Jhonny, like, not actually turning up. And this sort of self sabotage was just something that was there quite often. I mean, I could have showed...other occasions of that as well. But really, the audience only needs to understand that once or - you know - it gets kind of confusing, but, I think there were times when Jhonny would rather not know about how he could have done rather than, than turn up. And there were times, definitely when he - really all he had to do was turn up and surf pretty well, and he would have succeeded, but you know, he didn't have that person there at home sort of, you know, like, perhaps I did growing up or other people have; that person who believes in you, no matter what and tells you, you can do it or tells you that it doesn't matter how you do that it's only a sport, whereas he was going out there every heat, even every training session and surfing, like, his life depended on it, with all that anxiety and tension and fear, because his life really did depend on it. He'd aligned his future success with his success at surfing and the survival of his family. And, I think that definitely was the case. I mean, these things are never sort of totally black and white, true, you know, often we do have other chances and stuff. But, as an adolescent, when you don't have a lot of life experience and you have everyone backing you because of one talent that you have, you very much believe that that is your only chance in life, and you mustn't blow it. And, and also that sometimes it feels like that's the...only reason that people really care for you as well, or really...supporting you outside of your family is because of this talent. And that puts a lot of pressure on you as a teen athlete. And I mean, I think this isn't uncommon to a lot of young athletes who have found a talent and found success at a young age, and it's pretty, it's pretty terrifying and fascinating the pressure they put themselves under at such a young age, you know?

Thomas Stoneham-Judge

Yeah, absolutely. And all those points that you're saying are captured so well in this movie, particularly through the eyes of his coaches, because I think they reflect kind of all of those sentiments that you just mentioned throughout the movie, when it comes to the pressure and, you know, his background that could potentially be a hindrance, and the support that he needs in order to succeed. It is interesting to see how much more difficult it is for Jhonny to be successful at this, even though we see this talent, we know he's talented, his coaches know he's talented, everyone can see that. But the pressure of all of these factors, you know, weighing on him, and how that sometimes affects his performance. I know that there are times in the movie where he kind of cracks under the pressure. And it's interesting because in the stories, that's not like the ideal way of going about the story, you think, oh, well, he's so talented that he can overcome that, he's going to be triumphant every time. And it's not that, it's very real. It's very authentic. And that's what I really, really like about this story is how - not necessarily picture perfect it always turns out, but how it does communicate that story and what Jhonny is going through, and how he eventually does get back on his feet every time there is a disappointment. So yeah, very, very great job capturing that. Adam, is this your first feature length film?

Adam Brown

Yeah, this is my first feature length documentary, I guess this is kind of like my breakout film or whatever. I've been working in TV and film for a while now. Sort of mostly in camera, but also sort of doing producer directing, and TV and stuff. So this is very much, you know, me trying to strike out and doing more long form work, particularly in documentary.

Thomas Stoneham-Judge

Yeah, I'm curious at how that experience is compared to work you've done before. And I mean, we kind of touched on the worry about whether this was even a story that would gain support, like, how is this experience in making this feature length documentary, compared to maybe some of the shorts you've done, or some of the other video work or even the photography work? Because I know you kind of have a background in photography and you've done a lot of traveling to capture things. I'd really love to hear more about your background in filmmaking and how that compared to this.

Adam Brown

Yeah, so I definitely haven't sort of followed the ideal path in to this. I studied design, I worked in design, briefly, I guess for a couple of years or so in product design, sort of industrial design. And yeah, I wasn't really fulfilled in that. So I you I self taught myself filming basically and over the years, I did a lot of production work with a friend, had a little production company for a while and I apprenticed, I worked as a clapper loader, I worked on sort of remote heads, I guess, for sporting events, you know, sort of tracking cameras, and that kind of stuff. That was my way into the industry. And, I sort of gradually just built up doing a lot of camera work, and I did a lot of specialist camera work, filming in the mountains, because I ski and snowboard and doing a lot of adventure sports as well. So I kind of had a bit of a niche going on and that led on to sort of producer directing within sports, which I always enjoyed. But I love documentary, and I've done sort of fair bit of factual work on and off. And, yeah, I was really sort of aiming to find that project to sink my teeth into and was actively trying to find that story which would hopefully sort of be that first big project for me. And it came along. And, I thought I knew a lot, I mean, technically, I was pretty good with the camera and all that kind of stuff. And I could certainly tell a story visually, but the five years of this project was a huge learning curve. For me, there were so many things I learned, I guess, you know, from the filming side of it, it was all those soft skills of working with a sensitive, vulnerable contributor...in another language I didn't really know in another cultural space. And you're with many, many variables about what was going to take place with this. There was a big thing of me learning to live with the unknown to this project. It requires you to really find that headspace and really be accepting of how things evolve because it can really destroy you mentally, otherwise, with the worry. Particularly the more time and the more resources you've invested in a project.

I guess then there's that other sort of technical skill, which is sort of how do you - aside from all those soft skills and you know, there's others which are probably only mentioned but, it's like - how do you cover a scene where you've got three people in a room, having a critical discussion about somebody's life, when you've only got one camera? And you've got no sound man? It's just you basically. How do you cover that and make sure you've told the story? And you can't ask people to go again because this is unfolding live in front of you. And, something like that was a revelation. Or how do I make sure that I'm equipped, so that when things just evolve whilst I'm out walking around with Jhonny, that I can react to that and get good coverage without a sound man and without a second camera? You know, how do I do that? And those things were a learning curve and I've got to say I was much better at those by the end of the several years of filming and stuff. So that was all the sort of the filming side of things. And of course, I made tons of mistakes. There things I missed, there are things you regret not getting. And then once you're in the edit, that again was an enormous learning curve. I mean, the edit side of things, so technically, you know - I can edit, but that's just one thing. And I had a brilliant editor called Paul Holland. And working with him and also the producer, the co-producer, Dimitri Doganis - that was a there was a revelation, sort of them helping me to smash these hundreds of hours of storyline and interviews and actuality into some kind of form. I had a good idea of the structure in my head and what I'd worked out before the edit started, but that those guys sort of really helped me...learn that discipline that you needed to tell a story like this think succinctly and make it meaningful. And I've also had brilliant input from the BBC Storyville commissioning editors, Mandy Chang and Hayley Reynolds, two people with massive massive experience of documentary and narrative storytelling. And you just can't spend time with these people and not just learned so much. We didn't always agree on things, but on the whole they really sort of guided me and helped shape this story. As a filmmaker, I learned so much by that experience. And I'm really grateful to have such brilliant people to work alongside.

Thomas Stoneham-Judge

Yeah, that's incredible.One of the things I was going to ask, but then thought, maybe I have other things to get to, but since you brought it up, I'm going to ask is: what was the thing that maybe you missed? Or you regret not catching? Like, is there anything that you can, like, let us know that didn't make it into the documentary that you thought was important to the story?

Adam Brown

Well, there's things that you kind of would like to get, like, I always wanted to be out there more, you know? There were things which I got other people to cover for me, which they could do in a sort of basic way. There's not cameras and so on, there's not much available out out there easily. So, you know, there's things where I had to use other people's footage, I had to grab some stuff from like a news crew who filmed Jhonny's first tryout when I wasn't there. It's always like, I wish I was there just to kind of make it look nicer, just to cover that story in a different way. There's sort of more holes in the earlier footage and I didn't think we'd be so dependent on that, but we really were. I thought we would we could kind of skim over that part of the story more about when, in fact, we really needed all that early material. And I had so little, you know, that was where there were sort of the biggest gaps in my storytelling, because I was covering a group of different kids, not just Jhonny at first. And then, yeah, there were other things where I was certain that they were going to make the cut, like I spent a couple of weeks in Hawaii with Jhonny and this was sort of a really big test of his abilities, when he went there. And this was right, sort of towards the end of the filming period with him. And so, I was actually covering scenes and events really, really well. By that point, I was like a well oiled machine, I knew what I was doing. And I was like, ah this Hawaii footage is great, you know, we've got this, it's test of manhood here and blah blah blah. And, in the end, we just didn't use any of that. We just used a few shots. You know, plus, there was a ton of other material, like the day when he went to get his dad out of prison. It was a really sort of super tempestuous day, especially with Jhonny and Jose, his mentor. Even on the car ride to prison, there was a huge fight and stuff and lots of anxieties being aired and everything. And I thought for sure that a load of that stuff would make it but in the end there's only so much conflict and tension you can have in one story. At some point you got to say okay, I think....we've done the tension between them, we've kind of shown enough about his anxieties about his dad getting out and this is sort of repeating the same ideas again. And this is where having the experience with Dimitri and everyone else on board sort of really helped me to kind of see where we needed to be a little bit more story efficient and sort of get in and out of ideas quicker whereas but you know, because this is my passion project, my labor of love, you know, I want every minute on screen. Particularly all these powerful moments, explosive moments. You kind of think we're going to have them all on screen but in fact you can't do that or you'll just overwhelm an audience and the meaning gets lost if people always screaming and shouting at each other and stuff.

Thomas Stoneham-Judge

Yeah, yeah, because there are a couple of very contentious discussions. Kind of like what you're saying and what I mentioned when it comes to Jhonny and the pressure and not showing up and kind of just not being at his best I guess. And so some of that does get in there but you know, Adam, I wouldn't mind the director's cut. Just to get a more comprehensive look at that because you can you can feel the tension even there's a moment where he's where Jhonny is talking about his dad getting out and he's so - there's so just kind of bland about it. Like there's there's something he's not saying or there's some tension he's not divulging in what he's saying. So yeah, it's there and I think that what you guys ended up putting in the movie is very streamlined. It does - it's efficient, it communicates everything without being overwhelming. But yeah, I'll take a director's cut.

Adam Brown

[Laughs] I appreciate that. With the whole worries about his dad, I mean, it just, he had kind of - although he desperately needed his dad and he was missing that a father figure in his life, you know, he just had so much uncertainty, because you've kind of got some sort of stability going on in his life, sort of managed to get managed to pull this stability together and he started really worrying about how is it actually going to be with my dad, you know? Like, there were a lot of bad times with his dad as well. They clash and he hints at that his dad sort of had some issues with alcohol and stuff, and, you know his dad got put in prison for quite a serious crime as well. So, he had misgivings. And, jeez, I mean I guess around 18 years old, by that point, to be dealing with worries like that, it's just so much. You can't believe it if you had to deal with stuff like that yourself. It's a big weight for a teenager to carry, you know?

Thomas Stoneham-Judge

Absolutely, for sure. Um, so, this is kind of a spoiler just to get it out there. But I do want to talk about kind of the end of the movie, just because I'm curious that where things go. So Jhonny, his goal since the beginning of the movie, since 14, was to become the world champion. And we obviously see all the ups and downs over the five years that you guys spend with him trying to get there. In the end, he finishes fifth in the Junior World Championship, which is, which is totally honorable and very - an incredible accomplishment for him. But, you know, it's not World Champion yet. I'm curious at where Jhonny is now, what his goals are now, and what he's what working towards, if anything at this point.

Adam Brown

Yes. So yes, Jhonny, he entered the World Junior Championship, so...you enter that as an under 18 year olds, you have to be under 18 by certain date. And that is the one that we saw on screen - there were there were two different sort of bodies that whole beef World Championships and he entered both them did super well that year, in his final year of competing as a junior. And really to come from where he's come from in this deprive barrio in Lima, and then to be up there competing against the world's best Junior surfers; kid from America from, from Australia, you know, developed countries with decent monies and support coaches behind them and all that stuff. And you know, he really did amazing even be there in the first place. And then to sort of come top 10 and everything. And so, yeah, the following year, it's really his first year competing on the adult circuit, which at the time was the world qualifying series, the WQS. And this is also known as the grind for you know, reasons that it's so arduous and so hard to make it from there onto the world tour basically, which is where everyone's trying to get onto as a surfer. And so Jhonny had like a pretty intense first year, he spent all his sponsorship money traveling and going to these contests all over the place, trying to establish himself as an adult and basically got nowhere, which is not unusual for young surfer. But also he's doing this unsupported, he hasn't got the people he really needs to sort of support him in this endeavor. And so, he got he got pretty disenchanted after that first year, then he got dropped by sponsors, which meant that he no longer had any income. And then sort of in quick succession, all that happened. And then you know, COVID-19, and locked down in Peru, which has been really tough lockdown as well. They've had an enforced curfew. And a lot of people been getting sick from COVID out there. And so the lockdown is tough everywhere, but so many of the you know, the families in the poor areas are dependent on cash in hand work, casual labor. They don't have much in the way of savings. And so it's been really really tough, you know, it's been survival mode for everyone. They even got banned from surfing there for quite a while as well which kind of killed a lot of people's momentum. The World Surf League, which is the banner that they're all competing under as well got shut down. Still is kind only now starting to open up in a very small way. And so it just sort of felt like everything that he was aiming for just sort of fell apart. He's a pretty entrepreneurial kid and he's always been into his music and stuff. So he's actually sort of started another career as a kind of a rapper. He's been recording a ton of music during lockdown. He's really passionate about it, really into it. And really, I kind of wonder whether that maybe is the path that he'll go down now. I'm not really sure. I mean, I'm really hoping he'll get back into surfing I think, as is everyone. But you know, he hasn't really got any financial support with that in the moment. And yeah, I don't know, it's a bit of a watch-this-space at the moment. We managed to raise a little bit of money for him on his GoFundMe page. And yeah, but it is hard times over there. And I know Jhonny is struggling.

Thomas Stoneham-Judge

Yeah, well, for sure. And I mean, as far as your part in this story goes, this movie I think just captured that segment of his life. And if he doesn't get back into surfing, you know, he's going to do what his heart tells him to and what he wants to pursue, but capturing this segment of his life, this journey to be world champion - I think what you did with it was so great. And so inspiring for people, just in those five years that you captured, so well done with that. And yeah, like I said, hopefully he gets back into surfing. But whatever he does, definitely wishing him the best of luck in any endeavor he chooses to pursue.

Adam Brown

Thank you.

Thomas Stoneham-Judge

Yeah, for sure. So I must be overtime just a little bit. But one more question. I'm interested in the future of this film. Does it have distribution yet? Is there a release date? Is it still doing film festivals? What's the future of the film? And I also kind of want to know what you hope this story accomplishes and who you think this story should reach and be consumed by?

Adam Brown

Okay, so right at the moment, we're in a few film festivals still with them. Vancouver is sort of one of the biggies, which we're really pleased to have got into.Yeah, so we may yet get into a few more festivals later in the year. And we're certainly open to that. And the film gets aired on BBC Storyville, which is like the BBC flagship documentary strand, and they were the commissioners of the project, originally. So yeah, we're still looking for distribution, I would love for this to reach a wider audience. And, I think it's a pretty universal story. I guess that maybe on the face of it, because it's in Peru, because it's about surfing people, maybe, could think this is kind of niche, but I hope that people would realize as this is seen more widely, that this is a pretty universal story that most people can relate to, which is about being an underdog. Which is about trying desperately to support your family, at whatever costs. It's about survival. It's about the pressures on young people. Particularly in these, you know, super difficult, super underprivileged backgrounds. And I think ultimately, it's quite a positive story as well. And I was pleased that we had a positive outcome and it was a positive story about Latin America. Because there's a lot of quite negative stories about Latin America. And so yeah, I would love for this to be seen more widely. And I would love for it to be seen in some cinemas as well. The online film festivals has been great. It's been a brilliant solution. And it's been amazing how other film festivals have adapted, but I really feel that this stands up to being shown on a big screen, we've got an incredible audio mix, if nothing else. Which sounds great on a big sound system, too. So that's definitely one things we're working towards getting that on some big screens and getting the thing distributed as well.

Thomas Stoneham-Judge

Absolutely. Well, I'm so happy we got to talk about this. I'm happy that you were able to get on the phone and have a discussion. I think - it's like I said - it's a wonderful documentary, an inspiring story, and I'm very happy that it's at film festivals and that people can at least see that see it there and, and hopefully it does get wider distribution because I do think that this is a story that will resonate with a lot of people. Just kind of this story about chasing your dreams, and doing you know what you need to overcome challenges and pursue what you want. So, so yeah, excellent job on this film, Adam. You know, I absolutely applaud your effort here.

Adam Brown

Thank you so much. And if anyone wants to sort of help, or find out a little bit more about what's going on in these sort of environments in Lima, there's a great charity called altoperu.org. And they were pretty instrumental in helping me get access to Jhonny's barrio. They were pretty amazing helping me, you know, to work with Jhonny. And they help tons of kids like Jhonny through sport and art, and also helping people to improve their physical environment within these barrios and stuff. And yeah, they're a small grassroots organization. Pretty much saving people lives every day. So I would encourage people to check them out altoperu.org if they've got a moment, and also to you know, if they've got any spare cash to donate, donate to these guys, because they're doing some incredible work.

Thomas Stoneham-Judge

Absolutely, I'll be sure to post that link. So Into The Storm, we'll be streaming on the Vancouver International Film Festival's VIFF Connect platform during the festival from September 24 to October 7, if you're in British Columbia, I would strongly recommend checking it out during the festival and on their online platform. And, and yeah, we'll keep an eye out for wherever this movie shows up. And I'll be sure to tell people to watch it because I do think it's a great documentary. So thank you so much, Adam, for this talk. I really appreciate it. And hopefully I will catch you on another project. It'll be cool to see what else you have going on since you are so involved with these with these really cool like action sport type projects.

Adam Brown

Cool. Thank you so much. I really appreciate the interview and really pleased to be at Vancouver as well.