Behind the Lens: Filming Bethany Hamilton: Unstoppable

When I first started developing Bethany Hamilton: Unstoppable, I knew there was a version of this story that had already been told — the shark attack, the comeback, the inspiration. What hadn't been told was what came after: Bethany as a mother, chasing the biggest waves of her career while raising a toddler, redefining what it means to compete on her own terms.

That's the film I wanted to make.

Getting to the real story

Documentary filmmaking is a long game of access and patience. You can't rush the moments that matter. With Bethany, that meant spending real time with her family — not just in competition environments, but at home, in the lineup at Pipe, in the moments between sessions where she was figuring out how to be both an elite athlete and a new mother at the same time.

Those are the scenes that ended up defining the film. Not the wipeouts or the competition results — the quiet, human moments that athletes rarely let cameras see.

The water work

I shot a significant portion of the film in the water myself. Bethany surfs at a level that demands proximity — you can't capture what makes her surfing special from the channel or from shore. You have to be in the impact zone, in the whitewash, sometimes directly in front of the wave she's riding.

That kind of shooting requires a specific set of decisions in real time: when to hold your position, when to move, when to protect the camera versus getting the shot. You're making those calls with waves moving at 20 miles an hour in water that's often below 60 degrees.

The reward is footage that actually shows what it feels like to be there.

Tribeca and what came after

Having the film premiere at Tribeca Film Festival was a moment I still think about. The response from audiences — people who had never surfed a day in their lives connecting with Bethany's story — confirmed something I believe deeply: surf films don't have to be for surfers. The best ones are about something bigger than the sport.

The ESPN broadcast brought that story to an audience that never would have found it otherwise. That reach matters to me as much as any festival accolade.

If you haven't seen Unstoppable, it's worth your time — not because it's a surf film, but because it's a film about what it looks like to refuse the limits other people set for you.