Chasing Waves and Courage in Bethany Hamilton: Unstoppable
A documentary film about a disabled female athlete who builds courage within herself and seeks faith.

Rudi Schlosser and his ex Anna travel to Marrakech (Morocco) for their daughter Tina's wedding. Only there they learn the groom isn't a German engineer on the durable building site she knew but the local project leader Karim Mernissi. As an orphan, he was raised by uncle Rafiq Mernissi, a mundane literature professor, who still insists on a traditional Berber wedding, to console the family his bride is a European infidel. Anna abandons her opposition to tradition as she falls in love with Rafiq while making up with Rudi, but also stumbles unto a Mernissi family secret that shocks even Karim.
A documentary film about a disabled female athlete who builds courage within herself and seeks faith.
Growing up without a dad, I got a lot of my fatherly advice from the prototypes I saw on the silver screen. It’s these characters and films that gave me a glimpse into a dynamic I had never known but also made me realize that I was missing out. Here are my top 10 paternal films.
This is not a film, it’s a drop tower. A drop tower that you don’t get off of for the vast majority of its 106-minute runtime.
In a film where a Black couple is framed to be the lead characters, they still managed to get shuffled off to the sidelines. The enthusiastic cast delivers well on goofy bits- but can only go so far before they begin to fall flat.
Him is visually stunning—all concrete cathedrals and bone-rattling impact shots that look like a nightmare highlight reel. Marlon Wayans is magnetic as this legendary quarterback who's basically selling salvation with a smile that never quite reaches his eyes. But the story keeps running in circles: more tests, more cryptic pep talks, more ritualistic drills. The sports-as-religion metaphor beats you over the head when subtlety would've been more effective. The middle drags, and that finale chooses spectacle over substance. It's undeniably stylish, but left me cold. Also worth noting: despite the Monkeypaw connection, this isn't actually a Jordan Peele film—he didn't write or direct.
'Pariah' tells a powerful, mesmerizing, and unflinchingly honest story of identity.