On Tuesday, March 24, 2026, at 6:30 p.m., Belfast Free Library will host the screening of a short film, followed by a conversation about how the story of an underdog surf shop became a book, then a film. The event is free and open to the public, with Zoom registration available at belfastlibrary.org/events.

The film is a companion to Little Giant: The Story of Aruba's Surf Shop and the Rebels Who Built It, by local author Marcia Heath. Maine poet and writer Elizabeth Garber will moderate a discussion with Heath and Amanda Pisetzner, an Emmy-winning producer, about storytelling in its various forms.

According to a news release, the film began as interview footage shot for the book's launch event (October 2024) at the University of Aruba, where the shop's founders are recognized as role models for a new generation of island entrepreneurs. Initial funding came from the Aruba Tourism Authority and Qredits, a Netherlands-based funder of entrepreneurial start-ups.

Heath, a former Manhattan book editor, had a different vision for what the footage could become: a story about the creative courage of two friends, and what their unconventional life choices both cost and gave them.

The project brings together the book’s Generation X subjects with a cross-generational filmmaking team. Heath (Boomer) was the film’s Author/Director. Pisetzner (Millennial) joined as Executive Producer after Heath took her documentary filmmaking class at Maine Media College last summer. Nate Lifgren (Generation Z), a Maine Media graduate, stepped in as Editor.

"We were all working from the same footage," Heath says, "but we each brought a different perspective to the story."

The evening of storytelling will explore the hidden side of creative projects and how our stories can both shape and change us.

Copies of Little Giant will be available for purchase.