Filmmaker documents ocean camps as cancer therapy

The first time Suzanne Yeo participated in one of We Are Ocean’s lifestyle camps, she had a hard time lifting her arms, let alone a paddle.

The Huntington Beach fitness instructor, who was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2013, came to the one-day camp for cancer patients and survivors at the Newport Dunes Waterfront Resort on the recommendation of Jack Marshall Shimko, her friend and the founder of the Newport Beach-based nonprofit.

Yeo was still stiff from chemotherapy, however, and she needed help even to step on and off a paddleboard. So when Marshall Shimko invited her to participate in a five-day camp this summer on Catalina Island, Yeo had some misgivings. She pushed herself to go, though, and found the experience therapeutic — for reasons beyond the physical.

“Because we all had cancer in common, that was the one thing we could let go of and be ourselves,” Yeo said. “Because when you’re around people who haven’t experienced it, they kind of don’t know how to treat you. They’re kind of on eggshells.”

Three months ago, Yeo celebrated her “cancerversary” — the one-year anniversary of her double mastectomy. She considers herself cancer-free now. And with enough support, her story will soon reach a wider audience.

Filmmaker Richard Yelland, who spent five days on Catalina this summer filming Yeo and her 20 fellow camp attendees, has launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund his short documentary “Between Two Harbors.” The campaign, which seeks $45,000, had amassed 238 backers and more than $38,000 in pledges as of Thursday.

The campaign’s deadline is 11:59 p.m. Monday. If enough funds don’t come through, Yelland said, he’ll finish the project one way or another.

But if they do, he plans to film further interviews with some of the camp participants and finish two cuts of the documentary: a 45-minute version for iTunes and a shorter one to shop to television and film festivals. (Outside Television, a national network dedicated to spotlighting the outdoor lifestyle, has also expressed interest in screening two of Yelland’s segments in 2015.)

“It was quite a thing to have all these different people, some of them very frail and sick, all go over to this remote camp,” Yelland said. “So the idea was to spend the time with them, filming them, and see what they experienced and, ideally, watch transformation happen over those five days.”

Yelland and his crew captured more than a little transformation. Participants in We Are Ocean spent each day paddleboarding, kayaking and doing other exercises, and over the course of the week, Yelland saw people gain color in their faces and confidence in talking about their conditions. Some overcame their fear of the ocean.

Marshall Shimko, a Newport Beach resident, knows well how athletics can serve as therapy. The nonprofit director was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 2009 and battled it through exercise, participating in the Hennessey’s International Paddleboard Championships in San Francisco months after his diagnosis and paddling around the Channel Islands in 2010 and 2011 to raise money for charity.

When Marshall Shimko saw Yelland’s 2012 documentary “12 Miles North,” about 1940s African American surfer Nick Gabaldon, he contacted him and struck up a professional partnership. Yelland soon filmed a short documentary about Marshall Shimko’s recovery for a video project sponsored by Naked Juice.

That made Yelland a natural choice to document the We Are Ocean camp, which took place from July 31 to Aug. 4 at White’s Landing on Catalina. Marshall Shimko got each participant’s blessing to be filmed, and Yelland interviewed most of them on camera at the start and end of the camp.

“It’s kind of like a case study in the current world of cancer,” Marshall Shimko said. “Almost everybody has something to share that is currently happening, whether it be a success or an insurance problem. It’s really interesting how it’s shaped.”

Next year, Marshall Shimko plans to host four weeklong camps. We Are Ocean has put on single-day camps for cancer patients and survivors, and combined enrollment neared 100 people this year.

“Once we get these stories out to people, I really feel that other cancer patients and survivors alike are going to want to get involved with our organization,” Marshall Shimko said.

For now, he has at least one public promise: The trailer for “Between Two Harbors,” posted on the Kickstarter page, includes the words “Coming January 2015” at the end.