Behind the Lens – Yentl Touboul

Yentl Touboul, a name that’s not easy to forgot for all the right reasons. Hailing from Guadeloupe in the French Caribbean, Yentl’s move to France Metropole brought with it a fresh injection of creative energy to the European Skate and Surf team. Cutting his teeth with Desillusion and Wasted Talent Magazine, Yentl’s talent quickly shone through endearing him to editors and athletes alike and quickly saw him rise to the upper echelons of European, nay global filmmaking, traveling the world with the crème de la crème. Now you’ll find Yentl filming Republique in Paris, on a beach in West Africa, in the Fjords of Iceland and on the coast of Australia and further afield.

On the road he’s sharp, fun to travel with and with a keen eye for the irreverent details that make our cultures what they are. But in the postproduction is where he shines, the sheer attention to detail in the edit bay truly stands him apart from his counterparts and we’d urge you to check his cinematographic library of previous work.

At home in the South West of France for summer, we gave Yentl a call to learn more about the man behind the lens.

For those of us that don’t know you, please introduce yourself?

My name is Yentl, I’m an independent filmmaker and photographer based in France.

How did you first get into filming?

I first got into shooting through surfing: I grew up in Guadeloupe, a small island in the French Caribbean and started surfing as a kid after someone gave my parents a beat-up thruster from the 80’s. I got hooked instantly and soon enough surfing and surf films was all I could think of. When I was thirteen, I injured myself and got a Mini-dv camera to film my friends and edit little videos that I’d upload on Vimeo. Then teenage years and its numerous distractions came in the way… and also coming from this remote island in the Caribbean, there was no real artistic scene: it was hard to get your hands on gear, meet other people sharing the same passion, and even less imagine that you could make a living out of it. It’s when I finally moved to mainland France at eighteen that I really reconnected with filmmaking and photography: I bought a 35mm camera, a VHS camcorder and started shooting my friends and everything around me again.

And how did it progress from there?

Two years later, I interned at Desillusion magazine and that was a big turning point. I met Robin Pailler (who was editor and filmmaker at the time) and he quickly became one of my closest friends and a mentor to me. He let me use his GH4, got me into shooting super 8… There was a strong DIY philosophy within the team and it made me realize that you could do things your way and actually do this professionally without going to film or photography school. I started reading a lot about gear, watching loads of movies, hours of Youtube tutorials and soaking in as much as possible from the various creatives I was meeting. After a year, Desillusion went down and soon after I met Alex and Ben from Wasted Talent who I strongly connected with straight away. They quickly gave me my first opportunities to shoot in professional settings… I’ll never be thankful enough for that! For a while, I was doing various things for the magazine: shooting but also writing and curating the print issues. Around 2019, I had found a steady rhythm both through Wasted Talent and my freelance projects, so I decided to focus 100% on what I loved the most: making films and photographs - and that’s what I’ve been doing ever since.

How do you enjoy the mix of shooting analogue and digital?

Every format has its purpose… although everyone that knows me knows I love to shoot film. I find everything about it more organic: from the way celluloid handles light, to how film cameras were designed back in the day: the way you can quickly change your settings by turning a knob, do single frames instantly, see what you’re shooting through a piece of glass instead of a screen… I find them very instinctive to use. I also like the imperfections that you can provoke or not during all stages of the process. Same with VHS, High-8, Mini-DV… they’re formats I started on and I love how you can experiment and mess things up if you want to. On the other side, modern digital cameras have become so good. They’re so comfortable to use and when matched with the right lenses you can get beautiful results. I honestly love experimenting with all types of formats - it’s one of my favourite areas within filmmaking.

What are the challenges involved in that?

When shooting film, it can be a trip to go to these remote places and never be able to review what you filmed before you’re back home… weeks, even months after some time. Although after a while you get used to your gear - the camera, the lenses, the stock. You test things out in between trips and everything becomes more predictable. There’s always an element of surprise when receiving the scans though, and often it’s what makes the beauty of it.

What have been some of your most memorable trips?

South-Africa with Mikey February for 'Good Hope’ was incredible. SA is such a beautiful place and having him and Alan Van Gysen as guides, making sure we were in the right spots really made it memorable. One that will stay with me forever too was this road trip across the Balkans (Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia) in 2018. We were filming for a skate trip and photographing brutalist monuments, which we ended up making a book of more recently. It brought us in extremely remote areas, as far as you can be from surfing pretty much… seeing these beautiful structures in the middle of the wilderness, knowing that I probably wouldn’t be back ever in my life was really special. Reunion and Ireland for ‘North Stars’ were also amazing trips where everything felt into place naturally.

Craziest moment you have experienced on a trip?

There’s been so many throughout the years… coming back to ‘North Stars’, one that comes to mind right now was on our last trip in Ireland. On the first day of our trip, the swell wasn’t quite right, but we thought we’d give this notorious left slab a check… knowing we only had only a few hours of light, we decided to commit to it and take the thirty minute trek down the cliff and onto the reef. As we arrived, the swell started filling in—every set was bigger than the previous one and it started raining so I geared up to shoot from the water. For the next two hours, it was just Adrien trading these perfect cylinders with a couple of local bodyboarders… The rain gave the water such a texture, and swimming in this icy water, experiencing what was just pure natural beauty with no one around for miles was a surreal experience.

Favourite locations to shoot?

I’ve been lucky to see all these beautiful places over the years that it’s hard to pick. Ireland is up there on the list. I’m usually trying to go at least once a year and can’t get enough of it… the landscape is unbelievable, people are really genuine and there’s an energy that I really connect with. Australia is also a magical place that’s close to my heart—I have loads of friends based there and try to visit whenever I get the chance.

Favourite athletes?

I would say that I tend to connect with individuals who usually have other interests than just surfing or skating in their lives: people who are respectful of the places we visit, open minded and who can see further than the sometimes social media fuelled, ego-centric bubble…

How important is the crew that you travel with?

Whether it’s in front of the lens or behind it, having a good crew makes all the difference! When stuff goes wrong on the road, having the right people to problem solve, keep the collective spirit high and make sure that you can focus on shooting is so important. Filmmaking is a team effort, and it’s such a pleasure when you feel like everyone is motivated and working towards the same goal - after a few days it often becomes like a little family. Having the right collaborators can be the difference in a project being a drag from start to finish, to being a joy to work on.

What are some of the challenges you have faced on the road?

There always are curveballs on these trips… from luggage not showing up, cars breaking down, injuries, rain, snow, security… there are so many variables - the main one clearly being the conditions (swell, wind, tides…etc.) especially on surf trips. This one time in Iceland filming for a Wasted Talent and Vans trip called ‘Íslensku’, everything seemed to go against us: we started driving and fifteen minutes in, one of our 4x4s broke down. By the time we got a new one, it was 4PM (aka night-time) and we started the six hour drive across this crazy blizzard during which Seb Smart’s board-bag flew off the roof. We never found Seb’s boards, and on the second day, poor Koldo broke his ankle. Following that the waves were terrible, and we were spending our time chasing waves, driving six to eight hours a day only to get skunked… After a few days, we ended up chilling on the surf hunt and instead started doing these little interviews with people we met on the road, and that ended up being the film.

What have been some of your favourite Vans films you have made to date?

There’s been a fair few over the years… I’m happy with the way ‘Good Hope’ with Mikey February turned out. ’North Stars’ was self-produced, but Vans really helped us getting the project off the ground, so I’ll count it in there, as it’s one I’ll remember forever. It was my first full length and the fact that we made it happen on our own with Adrien - from finding the budgets to premiering it all over the world three years later - was really rewarding. It was cool to document and work with such a wide variety of people (surfers, shapers, musicians…etc.), a lot of them who became good friends.

Any film makers you look up to that have inspired your work?

Like many people of my generation, the work of Kai Neville has been a big inspiration early on. I remember receiving Modern Collective when I was fifteen, and the impact it had on me and my group of friends - it showed us an alternative, more artistic vision of what surfing could be and it really fuelled my desire to shoot and edit. All the Globe movies Joe G directed (Secret Machine, Year Zero, Strange Rumblings…etc.), along with the films of Ryan Thomas (Creepy Fingers, Psychic Migrations…etc.) also had a huge impact on me. Same with the work of Greg Hunt, Pontus Alv and Jim Greco. I’ve always been interested in films that break the codes of what a typical surf/skate films should be, and the more I move forward, the more my influences come from outside of these worlds to be honest. I recently attended a documentary film festival called Fipadoc, and some of the films I watched there were some of the most inspiring I’d seen in a long time.

How do you find the mix of shooting skate and surf?

Both have their specific challenges. Surfing is where it started for me and I feel like I’ve done it so much, in so many types of situations, that I tend to let things happen instinctively when it comes to finding angles, reading light…etc. It can be really frustrating and discouraging at times when conditions don’t line up—which happen most of the time—but it’s what makes it special when the stars align. Skateboarding is different in many ways… First it’s less limiting in term of how you can shoot the action—surfing can be tricky because of the water element. It is also a completely different experience depending on the country you’re in: for example skating around different spots in Paris or Copenhagen, compared to spending hours driving around in a van in Los Angeles. They’re both similar, in the way that in the end, for my part, I’m trying to tell a story (whether explicitly or implicitly), so staying alert and keeping an open mind to capture little details goes a long way.

Do you shoot anything outside of action sports?

More and more actually. Don’t get me wrong: as a surfer, there’s few things more exciting than being in the middle of nowhere filming someone landing a huge air or getting the wave of their lives. But the more I move forward, the more I realize that the stories around the action is what I’m interested in. There are so many interesting characters, subject and areas to explore linked to surfing, skateboarding and the subcultures around it. Being exposed to this alternative vision of life growing up opened so many doors and sparked so many of my other interests, whether it’d be music, arts, fashion, architecture, design… I feel like connecting these dots is what drives me the most. I also really enjoy working as a director and cinematographer in commercial settings when the context feels right - it’s a good way to try new things technically and I have being doing a fair bit of that recently.

What are your ambitions?

Ambition is almost a scary word in our day and age honestly… There are so many disturbing, messed up things happening around the world at the moment that I just consider myself extremely fortunate to be doing what I love for a living. Filmmaking and photography enabled me to see the world, discover new places, new cultures, meet new people… but also find out more about my own sensibility. It can be a demanding job at times, but there’s nothing else I’d rather be doing. So the goal is to keep it going - keep exploring different areas of filmmaking and photography, find the time to work on more personal projects and collaborate with inspiring people along the way.

Any last words for the internet?

Last words… a big thank you to my parents, my girlfriend, all my close friends and everyone that’s worked with me over the years. We’re very lucky to doing what we do, so hopefully we can keep that in mind as much as possible and learn to tolerate and love each other.