Peruvian wave

Humble.

That’s the word that most comes to mind when you ask Sofia Mulanovich’s admirers to describe the world champion surfer.

She may be competing at the U.S. Open of Surfing and premiering a documentary about her influence on the sport of surfing and the nation of Peru, but it doesn’t swell her ego.

“Sofia,” a documentary on the 23-year-old surf phenom who became a national icon, opened the fourth annual Surf Theatre Film Festival Tuesday night in downtown Huntington Beach.

The 60-minute film captures the story of Mulanovich, told through friends, family, other pro surfers and Peruvians as they discuss how she has both inspired and influenced their love of surf and country.

“It’s a lot about the people in Peru,” Mulanovich said, further illustrating how she would rather deflect the focus away from herself and on to others. “I just surf and it all happens around me, but at the same time it’s helping the country.”

Mulanovich has seen her country’s inspiration in the place closest to her heart ? out in the waves.

“There’s way more surfers in the water,” she said. “It’s good, seeing other surfers do good in the waves ? if they don’t get in my way,” she said jokingly.

The driving force behind getting the film made has always been Mulanovich’s agent, Susan Izzo.

Even when Mulanovich asked that the cameras stop filming her, Izzo willfully continued to shoot.

“I thought this needs to be captured on film,” Izzo said. “I wanted to show how she is affecting these people’s lives, not just in surfing.”

It was not until Izzo showed her a rough cut of the documentary that Mulanovich began to get excited about the film’s impact.

“I do like it now,” Mulanovich said. “I used to say, “You do documentaries for dead people.”

It was fitting to Izzo that the film premiered during the U.S. Open of Surfing in Huntington Beach, the place where she first met Mulanovich.

“It’s been an amazing journey, from the beginning of the film to the premiere here in Huntington ? to see her here, where she first competed on U.S. soil,” Izzo said.

Much of the cast and crew attended the event held at the Surf City 6 Cinemas, which included a post-movie autograph signing and private party. This is the fourth year of the festival, which will premiere films by Stacy Peralta, Travis Karian, Andrew Kopjak and Pete Matthews.

“We are fortunate to offer everything for every surf enthusiast, we have women surfing, longboards, shortboards we have something out there for everyone,” said Leslie Carlos, the festival’s founder and director.

And that’s not all.

The elite of surfing and a few surprise guests will come together on the last night of the festival Friday for a celebrity-style roast of the first world champion of surfing, Peter “PT” Townend, to celebrate 30 years of the professional side of the sport.

“I can’t wait [for the roast]; I have been planning it for a year,” Carlos said. “This year we really stepped up the bar.”

Tickets for the 7 p.m. Friday roast are $15. For more information, call (714) 842-4338 or go online at bigredprod.com. The night will include dinner, the roast and a film recapping 30 years of pro surfing by Ira Opper.

Be sure to bring a pen for autographs, because it’s going to be a night of who’s who of surfing, according to Carlos.

Carlos said those attending the roast must wear pink to honor Townend, who made this color his trademark in the waves, and out.

Townend stopped by the premiere to support “Sofia,” which he had already viewed at the Newport Beach festival in April.

“The story itself, that the director Peter Goetz put together, did such a good job of catching the emotion of this young girl,” Townend said. “It’s not a movie story, it’s a real story.”