Iballa Heart of Scales is a short documentary covering APP World Champion, Iballa Moreno's, life. In 2018, Iballa made history in being the first person to win both the windsurfing and SUP surfing world title in the same year - a milestone proving her unrivalled dedication to her professional sports career. However, her road to success was not easy. The documentary follows the high and low points of Iballa's life, showing what it takes and what is sacrificed to make it to the top. We sat down with Iballa to get some exclusive insights into the documentary.
Give us a little overview about what the documentary is about.
Iballa Heart of Scales is a biography of my life. It all started in 2018, when I won the world title in both windsurfing (PWA windsurf tour) and Stand Up Paddle Surfing (APP World Tour). Even though this double win had never happened in the history of sport, there was not much mention of it in the media, so my friend, Mario Entero, wanted to help me make a short film to publicise this achievement.
After Mario and I worked on the film for a while, Jose Hernandez and Kinema Productions became interested in the project and turned everything around. They wanted to help us tell the story but also show everything that happened before that in our lives: how my sister and I got into the sport, our family and our fight for equality in sport.
How did you feel when you were first approached to make the film?
At the beginning I thought it was going to be something small that we could post on social media. I never thought it would be getting played at film festivals! I'm just looking forward to the premier and for my friends and family to see it. It’s a secret at the moment so it can be played at the festivals.
What was the hardest thing for you to share in the documentary?
We searched for old videos of our past and we found a clip of our mother. She passed away when we turned 25 years old when we were in Hawaii. She died suddenly from a heart attack, it was very unexpected. For the first time in many years, I heard her voice again in the clip and it was crazy painful. I want to dedicate this film to both our parents, who are not here with us anymore, who were always our biggest supporters.
I also talk about my twin sister’s cancer, which was hard, but we also talk about the good things in life too.
The themes of the documentary include equality and women’s rights- is that something you are passionate about?
We have been on the windsurfing tour for 23 years, so we have seen the sport grow. We fought for equal prize money for the first time in the history of the sport. We even went to the Spanish Senate to discuss the inequality in sports in Spain. We never understood why we were getting less than men when we competed in the same conditions and trained as hard. We are happy to say that we helped women get equality in sports, alongside many female athletes across the world.
Tell us something no one else knows about the documentary so far
There is a poem that I read at the beginning of the teaser that is very significant to the whole documentary.
Are you happy about how the documentary turned out?
Very happy!! Working with great professionals like Jose Hernandez (Director), Kinema Productuions and Mario Entero (photography director) has been a pleasure and hopefully will allow the world to get to know the Moreno Twins.
The film is 38 minutes in length and will be premiered later in the year in both Spanish and English. Keep up to date with the documentary announcements on the website and social media.