First In, Last Out
2025 | Coast Film & Music Festival
Duration: 24 min
Synopisis
Christa Funk started her career in the Coast Guard, tentative to risk her future on her true passion: photography. After the tragic passing of her father, his final wish to her was to take a leap of faith and go for it. Since then, she’s risen to the top of her field, becoming one of the most respected photographers in surf history. Willing to risk it all in the most treacherous surf conditions, Christa is notorious for being the first in the water before sunrise and the last out after sunset. Her love of surf and photography is what keeps her grounded and allows her to capture some of the most famous moments in surf history.
Featured at Coast Film & Music Festival 2025 in “Our Lands” Short Film Block screening 11/04 at Laguna Beach Cultural Arts Center + 11/09 at the Forum Theater. Check the schedule + get tickets >>
Production Team
Co-Director Keith Malloy
Like his brothers, California-based Keith Malloy is a master of all forms of wave riding. Whether it’s a gun, a thruster or a pair of swim fins, his approach demonstrates a lifelong commitment to the sea. After years of surfing in front of the lens, Malloy stepped behind the camera to direct the bodysurf film Come Hell or High Water and Fishpeople (Mountainfilm 2017), which tells the stories of a unique cast of characters who have dedicated their lives to the sea. Fishpeople was featured on Netflix in 2017, the same year he co-founded Bimarian Films. He co-directed Beyond Sunset (Mountainfilm 2022) alongside Jeff Johnson. From big-wave riding to bodysurfing to filmmaking, Malloy is at home in the ocean, in almost any discipline, in any corner of the globe. His films capture a deep reverence, curiosity and excitement for the world around us. He lives in California with his family.
Co-Director Andrew Schoneberger
Andrew Schoneberger is a filmmaker and photographer with a degree in studio art from UC Santa Barbara. After graduating in 2005, he spent most of the remaining decade playing professional water polo around the world, but the desire to pursue a more creative life called him home to Santa Barbara, California, where he and director Keith Malloy founded Bimarian Films in 2017. He was a cinematographer and editor on the award-winning Patagonia documentary Fishpeople (2017 on Netflix). He was the director of photography of the independent music documentary Everything for All Reasons (2019) as well as the award-winning YETI documentaries Beyond Sunset (2022) and Let Me Live (2023). For the past two years he has been director of photography and story editor on the Red Bull series Life of Kai (seasons 3 and 4). He has directed films for Yeti, Chêne, and 805 Beer.