Latest news with #Yelland
Los Angeles Times
17-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
Documentary shares the story of local surfer who inspired ‘Endless Summer'
Classic surf film 'The Endless Summer' boasts one of the most recognizable posters in cinema and even those who aren't familiar with the film can probably identify the 'Theme from the Endless Summer' by the Sandals. The 1966 American surf documentary from filmmaker Bruce Brown helped usher the sport of surfing into mainstream pop culture and is responsible for establishing certain legends, like that of the perfect wave. Much of what is still associated with the surf lifestyle today can be traced back to the film. While the significance of 'The Endless Summer' is well documented, there is a story behind the iconic movie that is less known and Laguna Beach filmmaker Richard Yelland is dedicated to telling it with his film, 'Birth of The Endless Summer,' currently airing nationally on PBS. 'Birth of The Endless Summer,' directed by Yelland and produced by Curtis Birch, tells the story of surf pioneer Dick Metz, whose global travels from 1958 to 1961 inspired the original film's epic trip to the perfect wave at Cape St. Francis, South Africa. Metz is the founder of the Surfing Heritage and Culture Center in San Clemente, which is made up largely of his extensive archive collection of surf memorabilia, including early balsa wood surfboards. The Laguna Beach native is credited with connecting Southern California's surf scene with fledgling surf communities around the globe and spearheaded the expansion of the Hobie Sports retail chain to Hawaii. Yelland's documentary follows Metz at the age of 90 as he retraces his steps of the first trip that led him to Cape St. Francis, thanks to a tip from Cape Town surfer John Whitmore. In Brown's 'The Endless Summer,' co-stars Mike Hynson and Robert August hoof it over a sand dune on the same South African beach to come upon the perfect wave, introducing the world to this secret spot. 'If Dick hadn't met Whitmore… 'The Endless Summer' and the explosion of global surf culture that followed in its wake might never have happened,' said Yelland. 'Dick Metz was a catalyst for the birth of modern surfing, and I wanted to make sure this history wasn't lost.' Yelland isn't a stranger to documenting history. In 2012, he made '12 Miles North: The Nick Gabaldon Story,' a short film produced by Nike about the first documented African American surfer. Gabaldon, who pushed boundaries at a time when most beaches were segregated, died in a surfing accident near the Malibu Pier in 1951. 'Although it was only a short film, it ended up being a really significant film that fueled the Black surfing movement and documented a piece of history,' Yelland said. When Yelland was conducting research for '12 Miles North' he found Metz's archives at the Surfing Heritage and Culture Center invaluable. He was inspired to capture Metz's oral history while he still could. 'I realized that Dick Metz was an iconic story in surfing, like Nick Gabaldon, and he was still alive. So he could tell it,' said Yelland. Yelland and Metz got together in Dana Point to discuss the possibility of a documentary over a lunch that stretched into dinner. 'Which is easy to do with Dick, because he will tell stories for hours,' Yelland said. The resulting documentary feature, 'Birth of The Endless Summer,' tracks Metz's 'train-jumping, steamship-hopping tour' that begins at the Sandpiper, a Laguna Beach bar that's still in business. Produced in association with Bruce Brown Films, the documentary also includes never-seen-before photos and footage from Brown's archives and historic surfing imagery from the Surfing Heritage and Culture Center. The film is making waves, too. A five-time film festival winner, the documentary was named a 'Top 10 Film of the Year' by the IndieFest Film Awards and honored with the Los Angeles Press Club's 2025 'Sports Film of the Year' award. 'Birth of The Endless Summer' is also a 2025 Emmy Awards nominee in the category of independent programming. In 2021, the documentary was featured at the Coast Film Festival in Laguna Beach. In honor of Hynson, who died in January of this year, a commemorative screening of 'Birth of The Endless Summer' is planned for Aug. 1 at Pacific City in Huntington Beach during the U.S. Open of Surfing. Metz is scheduled to make a special appearance. 'Mike Hynson was familiar with Dick's story and he respected him as being that pioneer,' said Yelland. 'Whenever there was an event at the the Surfing Heritage and Dick was involved, Mike would show up.' Yelland said he wants people to know the film isn't attempting to pull credit from Brown, whose name graces a sign that reads 'Bruce's Beauties' at the coastal South Africa beach with the perfect waves. Rather than planting a metaphorical flag to say Metz was there first, Yelland said he is more focused on preserving the history of Metz's story. 'We are recording the history and in so doing, we are celebrating how amazing it is that those guys came a few years later and documented the perfect wave so everyone could see it,' Yelland said. He finds it more critical for viewers to be inspired and uplifted by the storytelling and find value in the connections and friendships surfing has afforded people all over the world. 'That's more important than who discovered the perfect wave,' said Yelland. In terms of the Emmy nomination, Yelland and his team look forward to September when they will find out if they won, but, he said, sharing Metz's story is the real reward. Taking a cue from his his globe-totting subject, Yelland said he sees the journey as the destination. 'Birth of The Endless Summer,' is currently airing nationally on PBS and also available on streaming platforms like Amazon, Apple TV, Google Play, YouTube Movies, Fandango, and Vimeo on Demand. For information on screenings follow @birthoftheendlesssummer on Instagram.
Glasgow Times
14-07-2025
- Glasgow Times
Prosecutor reflects on ‘long road' to justice for baby Victoria
On Monday, Victoria's parents, Constance Marten and Mark Gordon, were convicted of her manslaughter following two lengthy trials spanning two years. Samantha Yelland, senior Crown prosecutor for CPS London, told the PA news agency: 'I feel that justice has been done. 'It's been a long road, it's been a lot of work, but, you know, no work is too much when anyone's died, but particularly a young child who wasn't able to stick up for herself or fight for herself.' Crown Prosecution Service senior prosecutor Samantha Yelland (Emily Pennink/PA) Last year, a jury failed to reach verdicts on whether the defendants were responsible to Victoria's death but did convict them of concealing her birth, child cruelty and perverting the course of justice by hiding her body in a shed. Ms Yelland sought a retrial on charges of manslaughter and causing or allowing Victoria's death in the public interest, even though it meant a second six-month trial. Explaining the decision, she said: 'A baby died in circumstances which she absolutely didn't need to and could have been avoided. 'That is why it's serious and it needs to be prosecuted. Obviously none of us expected it to take this long.' Dealing with a case involving the death of a baby is 'always upsetting' even for an experienced team, she said. Phd students during tests replicating conditions in which Victoria died in a tent (Met Police/PA) Ms Yelland said: 'I consider it a privilege to prosecute baby cases. It is very upsetting, it could be harrowing, but usually the people charged with their killing is someone who is supposed to look after them. 'Some of the evidence in is not very nice, but we're just looking at the whole picture and wanting to get justice for the person who has died.' Images of Victoria's body found rotting amid rubbish in a Lidl bag in a shed near Brighton have stuck in her mind throughout the case. She said: 'I've seen what baby Victoria looks like inside of that bag. I've seen the post-mortem photos. 'We didn't subject the jury to that because that is not a nice thing to see. But the baby is in that bag, which we know she was carried around in when she died, but also when she was alive. It is probably what stays with me the most. And what was on top, the rubbish, the Coke can and the sandwich wrapper. 'And the two police officers finding it. You can see how moved they are when they realise that they found it. Obviously, that had been a manhunt been going on for a couple of days by that stage.' A pink sheet and Victoria's teddy bear motif babygro were found inside a Lidl bag with her body (Met Police/PA) On the defendants' actions after four other children were taken into care, Ms Yelland said: 'We never said that they didn't love their children, but when it comes to decision making, it's the prosecution view that they think of themselves above the children. 'And that's why they got themselves into the predicament they did. And that's why Victoria died, and that's why they continued to keep her there in that bag for however long it was after she died and not go to the police and not explain the situation. 'And that's why I charged perverting the course of justice rather than preventing the lawful for burial, which is another offence I could have considered. 'For me, it was more than that because they kept it for such a long time that the state that she was in was such that we couldn't be sure if there had been an injury – not that we're saying there was for a minute – but we wouldn't have been able to tell because at the amount of time that she'd been in there. 'I do accept that there were experts that said that everyone grieves differently and everyone deals with things differently, but I think the whole theme of this case is that they think about themselves more than they think about their children and other people.' Ms Yelland said the case had presented multiple challenges for the prosecution before baby Victoria was found dead on March 1 2023. Tests on the tent supported the prosecution case Victoria died from cold (Met Police/PA) Discussions had already started about charging Gordon and Marten even in the absence of a body. The CPS pressed ahead with charges despite a post-mortem examination failing to ascertain exactly how Victoria died. With no pathological cause of death, the jury was asked to look at other evidence that Victoria died from hypothermia or smothering, as the defendants claimed. Ms Yelland said: 'We decided that although there were two distinct ways in which she may have died, our main case is that she died of hypothermia. 'The defendants raised that she was smothered and in response to that, we say, while we don't accept that, even if that were to be the case, the circumstances in which she was smothered are such it still amounts to grossly negligence manslaughter. CCTV footage of Constance Marten holding baby Victoria under her coat in East Ham, London (Met Police/PA) 'It's our case that hypothermia would have been heavily involved in any smothering anyway, because she's been subjected to very cold conditions with the items that she was wearing and would not have been as healthy.' In a change from the original trial, an expert replicated cold and damp conditions in the tent where Victoria died and examined her inadequate clothes pointing to hypothermia being the likely cause. Other challenges involved piecing together and assessing sightings of the defendants from across England in the seven weeks they were on the run with baby Victoria. Mr Yelland said that the prosecution was able to narrow the timeline in the second trial although the prosecution still asserted Victoria survived for longer than the defendants had said. Towards the end of the retrial, Gordon, who by then was representing himself, provided the prosecution with the chance to lift the lid on his 1989 rape conviction in the United States after he gave a misleading impression of his childhood. When he refuted the convictions, the prosecution moved swiftly to produce an embossed certificate from a Florida court to prove it.
South Wales Guardian
14-07-2025
- South Wales Guardian
Prosecutor reflects on ‘long road' to justice for baby Victoria
On Monday, Victoria's parents, Constance Marten and Mark Gordon, were convicted of her manslaughter following two lengthy trials spanning two years. Samantha Yelland, senior Crown prosecutor for CPS London, told the PA news agency: 'I feel that justice has been done. 'It's been a long road, it's been a lot of work, but, you know, no work is too much when anyone's died, but particularly a young child who wasn't able to stick up for herself or fight for herself.' Last year, a jury failed to reach verdicts on whether the defendants were responsible to Victoria's death but did convict them of concealing her birth, child cruelty and perverting the course of justice by hiding her body in a shed. Ms Yelland sought a retrial on charges of manslaughter and causing or allowing Victoria's death in the public interest, even though it meant a second six-month trial. Explaining the decision, she said: 'A baby died in circumstances which she absolutely didn't need to and could have been avoided. 'That is why it's serious and it needs to be prosecuted. Obviously none of us expected it to take this long.' Dealing with a case involving the death of a baby is 'always upsetting' even for an experienced team, she said. Ms Yelland said: 'I consider it a privilege to prosecute baby cases. It is very upsetting, it could be harrowing, but usually the people charged with their killing is someone who is supposed to look after them. 'Some of the evidence in is not very nice, but we're just looking at the whole picture and wanting to get justice for the person who has died.' Images of Victoria's body found rotting amid rubbish in a Lidl bag in a shed near Brighton have stuck in her mind throughout the case. She said: 'I've seen what baby Victoria looks like inside of that bag. I've seen the post-mortem photos. 'We didn't subject the jury to that because that is not a nice thing to see. But the baby is in that bag, which we know she was carried around in when she died, but also when she was alive. It is probably what stays with me the most. And what was on top, the rubbish, the Coke can and the sandwich wrapper. 'And the two police officers finding it. You can see how moved they are when they realise that they found it. Obviously, that had been a manhunt been going on for a couple of days by that stage.' On the defendants' actions after four other children were taken into care, Ms Yelland said: 'We never said that they didn't love their children, but when it comes to decision making, it's the prosecution view that they think of themselves above the children. 'And that's why they got themselves into the predicament they did. And that's why Victoria died, and that's why they continued to keep her there in that bag for however long it was after she died and not go to the police and not explain the situation. 'And that's why I charged perverting the course of justice rather than preventing the lawful for burial, which is another offence I could have considered. 'For me, it was more than that because they kept it for such a long time that the state that she was in was such that we couldn't be sure if there had been an injury – not that we're saying there was for a minute – but we wouldn't have been able to tell because at the amount of time that she'd been in there. 'I do accept that there were experts that said that everyone grieves differently and everyone deals with things differently, but I think the whole theme of this case is that they think about themselves more than they think about their children and other people.' Ms Yelland said the case had presented multiple challenges for the prosecution before baby Victoria was found dead on March 1 2023. Discussions had already started about charging Gordon and Marten even in the absence of a body. The CPS pressed ahead with charges despite a post-mortem examination failing to ascertain exactly how Victoria died. With no pathological cause of death, the jury was asked to look at other evidence that Victoria died from hypothermia or smothering, as the defendants claimed. Ms Yelland said: 'We decided that although there were two distinct ways in which she may have died, our main case is that she died of hypothermia. 'The defendants raised that she was smothered and in response to that, we say, while we don't accept that, even if that were to be the case, the circumstances in which she was smothered are such it still amounts to grossly negligence manslaughter. 'It's our case that hypothermia would have been heavily involved in any smothering anyway, because she's been subjected to very cold conditions with the items that she was wearing and would not have been as healthy.' In a change from the original trial, an expert replicated cold and damp conditions in the tent where Victoria died and examined her inadequate clothes pointing to hypothermia being the likely cause. Other challenges involved piecing together and assessing sightings of the defendants from across England in the seven weeks they were on the run with baby Victoria. Mr Yelland said that the prosecution was able to narrow the timeline in the second trial although the prosecution still asserted Victoria survived for longer than the defendants had said. Towards the end of the retrial, Gordon, who by then was representing himself, provided the prosecution with the chance to lift the lid on his 1989 rape conviction in the United States after he gave a misleading impression of his childhood. When he refuted the convictions, the prosecution moved swiftly to produce an embossed certificate from a Florida court to prove it.
Rhyl Journal
14-07-2025
- Rhyl Journal
Prosecutor reflects on ‘long road' to justice for baby Victoria
On Monday, Victoria's parents, Constance Marten and Mark Gordon, were convicted of her manslaughter following two lengthy trials spanning two years. Samantha Yelland, senior Crown prosecutor for CPS London, told the PA news agency: 'I feel that justice has been done. 'It's been a long road, it's been a lot of work, but, you know, no work is too much when anyone's died, but particularly a young child who wasn't able to stick up for herself or fight for herself.' Last year, a jury failed to reach verdicts on whether the defendants were responsible to Victoria's death but did convict them of concealing her birth, child cruelty and perverting the course of justice by hiding her body in a shed. Ms Yelland sought a retrial on charges of manslaughter and causing or allowing Victoria's death in the public interest, even though it meant a second six-month trial. Explaining the decision, she said: 'A baby died in circumstances which she absolutely didn't need to and could have been avoided. 'That is why it's serious and it needs to be prosecuted. Obviously none of us expected it to take this long.' Dealing with a case involving the death of a baby is 'always upsetting' even for an experienced team, she said. Ms Yelland said: 'I consider it a privilege to prosecute baby cases. It is very upsetting, it could be harrowing, but usually the people charged with their killing is someone who is supposed to look after them. 'Some of the evidence in is not very nice, but we're just looking at the whole picture and wanting to get justice for the person who has died.' Images of Victoria's body found rotting amid rubbish in a Lidl bag in a shed near Brighton have stuck in her mind throughout the case. She said: 'I've seen what baby Victoria looks like inside of that bag. I've seen the post-mortem photos. 'We didn't subject the jury to that because that is not a nice thing to see. But the baby is in that bag, which we know she was carried around in when she died, but also when she was alive. It is probably what stays with me the most. And what was on top, the rubbish, the Coke can and the sandwich wrapper. 'And the two police officers finding it. You can see how moved they are when they realise that they found it. Obviously, that had been a manhunt been going on for a couple of days by that stage.' On the defendants' actions after four other children were taken into care, Ms Yelland said: 'We never said that they didn't love their children, but when it comes to decision making, it's the prosecution view that they think of themselves above the children. 'And that's why they got themselves into the predicament they did. And that's why Victoria died, and that's why they continued to keep her there in that bag for however long it was after she died and not go to the police and not explain the situation. 'And that's why I charged perverting the course of justice rather than preventing the lawful for burial, which is another offence I could have considered. 'For me, it was more than that because they kept it for such a long time that the state that she was in was such that we couldn't be sure if there had been an injury – not that we're saying there was for a minute – but we wouldn't have been able to tell because at the amount of time that she'd been in there. 'I do accept that there were experts that said that everyone grieves differently and everyone deals with things differently, but I think the whole theme of this case is that they think about themselves more than they think about their children and other people.' Ms Yelland said the case had presented multiple challenges for the prosecution before baby Victoria was found dead on March 1 2023. Discussions had already started about charging Gordon and Marten even in the absence of a body. The CPS pressed ahead with charges despite a post-mortem examination failing to ascertain exactly how Victoria died. With no pathological cause of death, the jury was asked to look at other evidence that Victoria died from hypothermia or smothering, as the defendants claimed. Ms Yelland said: 'We decided that although there were two distinct ways in which she may have died, our main case is that she died of hypothermia. 'The defendants raised that she was smothered and in response to that, we say, while we don't accept that, even if that were to be the case, the circumstances in which she was smothered are such it still amounts to grossly negligence manslaughter. 'It's our case that hypothermia would have been heavily involved in any smothering anyway, because she's been subjected to very cold conditions with the items that she was wearing and would not have been as healthy.' In a change from the original trial, an expert replicated cold and damp conditions in the tent where Victoria died and examined her inadequate clothes pointing to hypothermia being the likely cause. Other challenges involved piecing together and assessing sightings of the defendants from across England in the seven weeks they were on the run with baby Victoria. Mr Yelland said that the prosecution was able to narrow the timeline in the second trial although the prosecution still asserted Victoria survived for longer than the defendants had said. Towards the end of the retrial, Gordon, who by then was representing himself, provided the prosecution with the chance to lift the lid on his 1989 rape conviction in the United States after he gave a misleading impression of his childhood. When he refuted the convictions, the prosecution moved swiftly to produce an embossed certificate from a Florida court to prove it.
Leader Live
14-07-2025
- Leader Live
Prosecutor reflects on ‘long road' to justice for baby Victoria
On Monday, Victoria's parents, Constance Marten and Mark Gordon, were convicted of her manslaughter following two lengthy trials spanning two years. Samantha Yelland, senior Crown prosecutor for CPS London, told the PA news agency: 'I feel that justice has been done. 'It's been a long road, it's been a lot of work, but, you know, no work is too much when anyone's died, but particularly a young child who wasn't able to stick up for herself or fight for herself.' Last year, a jury failed to reach verdicts on whether the defendants were responsible to Victoria's death but did convict them of concealing her birth, child cruelty and perverting the course of justice by hiding her body in a shed. Ms Yelland sought a retrial on charges of manslaughter and causing or allowing Victoria's death in the public interest, even though it meant a second six-month trial. Explaining the decision, she said: 'A baby died in circumstances which she absolutely didn't need to and could have been avoided. 'That is why it's serious and it needs to be prosecuted. Obviously none of us expected it to take this long.' Dealing with a case involving the death of a baby is 'always upsetting' even for an experienced team, she said. Ms Yelland said: 'I consider it a privilege to prosecute baby cases. It is very upsetting, it could be harrowing, but usually the people charged with their killing is someone who is supposed to look after them. 'Some of the evidence in is not very nice, but we're just looking at the whole picture and wanting to get justice for the person who has died.' Images of Victoria's body found rotting amid rubbish in a Lidl bag in a shed near Brighton have stuck in her mind throughout the case. She said: 'I've seen what baby Victoria looks like inside of that bag. I've seen the post-mortem photos. 'We didn't subject the jury to that because that is not a nice thing to see. But the baby is in that bag, which we know she was carried around in when she died, but also when she was alive. It is probably what stays with me the most. And what was on top, the rubbish, the Coke can and the sandwich wrapper. 'And the two police officers finding it. You can see how moved they are when they realise that they found it. Obviously, that had been a manhunt been going on for a couple of days by that stage.' On the defendants' actions after four other children were taken into care, Ms Yelland said: 'We never said that they didn't love their children, but when it comes to decision making, it's the prosecution view that they think of themselves above the children. 'And that's why they got themselves into the predicament they did. And that's why Victoria died, and that's why they continued to keep her there in that bag for however long it was after she died and not go to the police and not explain the situation. 'And that's why I charged perverting the course of justice rather than preventing the lawful for burial, which is another offence I could have considered. 'For me, it was more than that because they kept it for such a long time that the state that she was in was such that we couldn't be sure if there had been an injury – not that we're saying there was for a minute – but we wouldn't have been able to tell because at the amount of time that she'd been in there. 'I do accept that there were experts that said that everyone grieves differently and everyone deals with things differently, but I think the whole theme of this case is that they think about themselves more than they think about their children and other people.' Ms Yelland said the case had presented multiple challenges for the prosecution before baby Victoria was found dead on March 1 2023. Discussions had already started about charging Gordon and Marten even in the absence of a body. The CPS pressed ahead with charges despite a post-mortem examination failing to ascertain exactly how Victoria died. With no pathological cause of death, the jury was asked to look at other evidence that Victoria died from hypothermia or smothering, as the defendants claimed. Ms Yelland said: 'We decided that although there were two distinct ways in which she may have died, our main case is that she died of hypothermia. 'The defendants raised that she was smothered and in response to that, we say, while we don't accept that, even if that were to be the case, the circumstances in which she was smothered are such it still amounts to grossly negligence manslaughter. 'It's our case that hypothermia would have been heavily involved in any smothering anyway, because she's been subjected to very cold conditions with the items that she was wearing and would not have been as healthy.' In a change from the original trial, an expert replicated cold and damp conditions in the tent where Victoria died and examined her inadequate clothes pointing to hypothermia being the likely cause. Other challenges involved piecing together and assessing sightings of the defendants from across England in the seven weeks they were on the run with baby Victoria. Mr Yelland said that the prosecution was able to narrow the timeline in the second trial although the prosecution still asserted Victoria survived for longer than the defendants had said. Towards the end of the retrial, Gordon, who by then was representing himself, provided the prosecution with the chance to lift the lid on his 1989 rape conviction in the United States after he gave a misleading impression of his childhood. When he refuted the convictions, the prosecution moved swiftly to produce an embossed certificate from a Florida court to prove it.
