Dogtown and Z-Boys (2001)

Director: Stacy Peralta
Starring: Sean Penn (narrator), the former Zephyr skate team, Henry Rollins, Tony Hawk

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I'm not entirely sure what I can say about this movie; go see it, I suppose. Sure, the interviews and retrospective of the Venice beach Zephyr skate team--the team that essentially defined the aesthetic of skateboarding from then on and the team that essentially discovered the half-pipe--are interesting and romantic as hell. The real joy of the film comes from just watching the kids skate. Oddly enough, however, the moving images don't quite capture the energy of the sport as well as the myriad photographs do. If you care anything about skateboarding--hell, even if you don't--you should check out this story of, yes, how a ragtag bunch of kids from Venice, CA transformed a relatively dorky sport into an international outcast phenomenon.

Interesting sidenote: the director, Stacy Peralta, was actually a member of the original Zephyr team before he branched off to go into business of his own.

August 4
apartment TV, afternoon

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