When more than 700 people turned up at Wollongong Town Hall for the world premiere of Cohan Banfield and Mark Brightwell's first film last September, the two men knew they were on to something big.
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Within days RAW The Movie had been recognised for best cinematography at the 2012 New York Surf Film Festival and was accepted into other festivals around the globe.
The two men travelled to London, Hawaii, South Africa, Germany and North Carolina late last year and the movie was more recently selected for festivals in New Zealand and Texas and the Byron Bay International Film Festival early next month.
Interest in Australia was so great that when they released RAW The Movie on DVD just before Christmas it quickly sold out.
Global interest was also significant when it was made available on iTunes and the Wollongong-produced movie has just been nominated for best picture (Surf Movie Of The Year) at the Australian Surfing Awards.
Meantime, Brightwell and Banfield are trying to keep up with demand for international sales of their film.
After selling out nationally last month, the pair decided to make RAW The Movie available for purchase physically and digitally through the website www.rawthemovie.com.
"The film is now available around the world on iTunes excluding Australia due to demand for DVD sales, but will be available on iTunes in Oz in the coming months," Brightwell said.
The 54-minute action film features local surfing professionals such as Owen Wright, Dean Bowen, Dylan Longbottom and Michael Hopkins as well as Kelly Slater, John John Florence, Taj Burrow, Jamie O'Brien and world champion Joel Parkinson.
"The film was shot over two years documenting some of the best surf swells ever at locations in Australia, Hawaii, Indonesia and the famous code red swell that hit Tahiti's Teahupoo last year in August that has to be seen to be believed," Brightwell said.
The DVD features bonus footage and a never- before-seen interview with Koby Abberton and Bruce Irons.