Dogtown and Z Boys

This film is one that was brilliantly edited and put together. The story of the Zephyr Skate Team, the team that forever changed skateboarding, is one of high adventure and real danger. They did things on boards that no one else had even imagined, translating surfing moves and form, to the pavement. They did everything bigger, faster, higher and more powerful, first. This movie is their documented history.

This film was directed by Stacy Peralta, an original member of the Z boys, edited by Paul Crowder. Vans produced the film and it was distributed by Sony Pictures Classics. This film went from start to finish in 6 months, and was highly successful in the Indie film circuits. Peralta won Best Director at Sundance, in 2001, and the film won an Audience Award at both Sundance and the AFI Film Festivals. This film inspired the film Lords of Dogtown, and inspired stylizing of the skate industry.

Description: this film has a very different feel to it. There was so much old surf footage and skating shots, mixed with interviews, graphics, stills and a superb soundtrack. Sean Penn narrates this gritty film, and does so with such a natural feel. I was curious as to why he was such a perfect fit as the narrator, in the director’s commentary Peralta states that,”he was from Venice, about 30 minutes from where the film takes place, as well as being a surfer/skater himself.” (Dogtown) The stylization of this film fits so perfectly together, giving it an unpretentious feel, immersing one in to this unique culture.

The form of this film, shots and historical, is so unique. They limited computer editing in this film as far as adding stills to the film, and filmed them with the video cameras. The zoom ins and pull outs on the maps are all done with the camera, not the computer. Many of the stills have the Burns effect, pans and lifts on the pictures, with obliquing and tilts. There is a sequence of stills used to describe the once Coney Island boardwalk feel of Venice, and it paints a unique history of this seaside community.

Peralta and Crowder use the graffiti of Venice as a landscaping for this movie, really creating powerful visuals. It helps to give a feeling of hostility that these young men had for outsiders and visitors. I have never seen a documentary that relied so much on old footage to set the scene of what happened to create the topic of the film. The footage is mostly that of the 70’s, archiving the scene that the interviewees are describing. Margaret A. McGuirk says,”Mr. Peralta's filmmaking style is charged with driving, video-style energy, frantic cutting, intense music, and a strong dose of romantic nostalgia.” (Cincinatti.com) Much of the footage is overlaid with old reels and post-production blips, adding to an archived aesthetic.

Many of the interviews are fast-forwarded, getting that person to the point of emphasis. There are a lot of footage transitions and stills that are fast-forwarded maintaining an interesting uniformity throughout. I think that it helps to drive home the final point, or theme of what is being shown. Several of the interviews were shot in black and white, which is a strong contrast to the bright colors of the old footage and stills from back in the day. This film feels like urban warfare. The skaters were so hardcore dedicated to their craft they didn’t give a shit about anything but skating, and that raw passion translates through gritty imagery, both moving and still.

Between the archival footage of surfing, many of the interviews had the sound of the tide overlaid on it, tying in the visuals and words to a common theme. With the sounds of the surf, the jump cuts from the interviews to the corresponding surf and skate footage, creates a memoir or visual diary of a time long since passed, yet maintains a commonality with the viewer. The obliquing of the surf and skate footage gives it a hard edge, an extreme feel and puts the audience at unease. At the end of this sequence of footage, it clicks like film separating from the movie reel and then appears to catch on fire. Brilliant. With this editing and footage it helps to reinforce the sense of urban warfare that this group of young men declared on the streets and swimming pools of southern California.

Interpretation

The way that the film was put together reflects the people whom it depicts. Stacy Peralta really captures a rough guerrilla feel that defined this rag tag bunch of athletes. Many of the Z boys came from broken or damaged homes and used skating as an escape from the difficulties of growing up in the community known as Dogtown. Skating offered them the chance to leave tough circumstances and become something more, and the raw footage, language and interviews really gave me a sense of that desperation. Skating was their lifeline and most let it slip through their hands, while a few succeeded and overcame the perils of this existence.

Two of the interviews took place in a junkyard, signifying decay and difficulty, while establishing a style of triumph and dignity; and others took place in surf shops or at homes, removing the pretense and self-importance that one would expect in a biographical documentary. I was watching people that had an effect on millions of people, but I was able to connect with the humility and individualism portrayed in their interviews. As they talked about some of the struggles that each of them had, it helped to reinforce the humanity that they have and proved that no matter what the success or recognition, everyone can slip and fall; but those that get back up and move forward are heroes and icons.

The graffiti and vulgar language really helped me to entrench myself in the rough side of town. It gave a dimension to their life that I would not have experienced but for the graffiti of hate and negativity for outsiders. In bold letters the words, “Not Welcome” and “Go Home” were common place on walls and buildings. This hostility towards those looking in was something that disconnected me from them, but reinforced the importance of the barriers that are now gone. When I say vulgar language I do not just mean obscenities but syntax and verbiage. They speak without education and yet the honesty with which they speak touched me as a viewer, enabling me to remove judgment and build appreciation. How is it that young men and women from a poor area in a rundown, forgotten community could change the world? Amazing. They were real life Lost Boys, sans the vampirical hunger.

The surfing footage and the old stills that were used really reminded me of a scrap book. Like I stated Peralta filmed the stills, and the camera work gives it such an eclectic feel. This method demonstrates honesty and keeps in line with the subtle humility that this movie sustains. It would have felt completely different had he gone with fancy computer editing and effects. The bare bone, simplistic edginess is what defines this documentary as ground-breaking and iconic. As I watched this over and over, in order to prepare myself for this paper, I could not help but reminisce about the old skater videos that I watched as a kid. This was no mistake and much of the feel of this film was derived from those early amateur videos.

Like Skip says in his interview, “Little blond chicks named Buffy weren’t my scene.” (Dogtown) The culture that is reflected is heavily influenced by Hispanic and Polynesian heritage. Being in a poorer community, they had access to alcohol and drugs from a young age, and for some that transformed in to a life of crime and waste. Jay Adams, arguably the most talented of the bunch, was in prison for his interview where he has been for quite some time. He has several tattoos and his hard life was visible on his face and in his voice. He shunned the big money for the purity of “just skating” but this seemed to have damaged him. Peralta on the other hand seized the day and was the highest paid skater of all-time pre Tony Hawk, who he discovered and sponsored. The strong contrasts portrayed in this film, really helped me to visualize the battles that many of them faced while on top of the world; fame and fortune or anominity and passion?

This film had such an impact on the world of extreme sports. Mainstream surfers and skaters came from fairly affluent backgrounds, and this group of young scallywags tore down barriers and stereotypes. When Stecyk wrote his first of the Dogtown articles for “Skateboarder Magazine”, kids from all over really connected to them. This type of athlete no longer had to be white and clean cut, but they could be street urchins with talent, what mattered most became the love of something. Tom Sims was a professional skateboarder in the 60‘s and is the proprietor of Sims Snowboards and Skates and had this to say about the Z boys [at their first competition],” They were unconventional and they didn’t care if they got judged well.” (Dogtown) This mode of thinking helped to establish the beginning of skateboarding as we know it and shaped countless other extreme sports, both winter and summer.

This film was received at Sundance with a lot of fan and celebrity gusto. People began to really look at this sport as one that was truly American. Skating is a sport that spans the globe, and it was started and perfected here.. This film is truly the story of America, kids with not much hope in the future, grabbing a hold of something and changing the world forever, through passion and guts, living an impossible dream, attainable it seems for almost anybody. Shogo Kubo states,” We were treated like kings at every place that we went to.” (Dogtown) Allen Sarlo states,” We were all hungry for recognition, so we all put forth our maximum effort.” (Dogtown)

Stacy and Paul had both spent considerable time in television, and in their own words, “Were not really forced to be creative.” (Dogtown) They had a schedule and an expectation for TV that they had to meet, and they really had worked for quite a while with little or no artistic freedom. This was a challenge that they faced, as Vans gave them $400k and zero supervision. During the director’s commentary Stacy and Paul said that Vans never asked to see any daily’s or had any timeline structure, but left everything up to them. The amount of discipline that one must have to complete a project with little if any accountability is pretty considerable. One of the biggest concerns that they had while completing this film was purchasing music rights and finding those songs that best maintained the integrity of the old footage and stills. $400k is not that much money to work with if you consider the purchase of music and old surf and skate footage. Rounding up and editing all of that footage was pretty difficult as well. Paul said that he went through hours and hours of old Z boy footage and random surf footage to capture the right images in the film. What a marvelous job he did in editing it together to create a seamless documentation of SoCal history.

Stacy stated in the director’s cut that locating everybody on the original team was pretty difficult, because he had lost contact with several of them. He said that he had flown in to Hawaii to interview the founder of the Zephyr team, Jeff Ho, and had gotten totally lucky in contacting Shogo Kubo, who reached out to him in the eleventh hour. (Dogtown) Up until I heard this it had never occurred to me the problem of rounding up people that one had not seen in twenty plus years. So, picture all of these struggles. Now imagine from start to finish you collect all of these pieces and have a finished product in 6 months! That is unbelievable!

This film used a lot of footage shot by onlookers and third party members of the Z boys. Those with the cameras had hopes of becoming part of the team, and filming the competitions and swimming pool scenes were the sure ways that they could be involved with their hometown heroes. The stills of the Z boys were shot by craig Stecyk who wrote many articles about their exploits for skateboarding magazines. Through the images that he captured as well as the stories he wrote, the boys became legendary and he perpetuated their success.

Meredith Brody states,” Stacy Peralta incorporates interviews with the grown-up boarders, and his accomplished (if occasionally overcut) film combines nostalgia for the group's artistry with a poignant examination of the inevitable loss of innocence: lucrative deals with skateboard manufacturers swiftly broke the group apart.” (Chicagoreader.com)

This documentary would be considered poetic, expository, observational and participatory. First, Poetic: This film has many aesthetic qualities that make it standout from so many documentaries that I have seen. There are intense cuts between rough skate and surf footage, sandwiched between black and white interviews, strung together with intense, harsh music. Peralta uses graphics and shot manipulation to intensify the experience of the audience, throw in some editing tricks and you get a mashed array of vivid images that sticks with the viewers. The colors in this film help to clarify time periods and attitudes of those individuals and settings being filmed.

Second, Expository: Sean Penn as the narrator really gets in to some of the nitty, gritty details of the way things were in Venice. He describes the creation of Venice, its rise in Americana, its fall and the rubble that remained, both physically and emotionally within the community. The way that he explains that segment of history sets the scene for the attitudes of the young people being portrayed. When their story begins you feel like you know them better based on the circumstances that were previously discussed. Like I mentioned earlier Penn brings honesty to the narration, because of his roots in the area and culture.

Third, Participatory: during the interviews you can hear the cameramen laugh and react to the dialogue of the interviewee. The archived footage of the Z boys was very hands on and they were aware of the “objective” party filming. They gesture and speak in to the camera, and those filming react to the tricks and circumstances being documented. There is a unified feeling between those being documented and those documenting, and this awareness supersedes the two dimensional nature of the film, it is palpable.

Fourth, Observational: this is interesting because participatory is the preceding subject. Much of the footage is filmed from a distance or in the background and it captures the natural setting that the boys and surfers had with their environment. In much of the footage you can sense the oneness that the individual felt with his/her environment, much like watching an animal in its natural habitat. The reactions and events are completely unscripted, and the athlete doesn’t realize the observational value of what he/she is doing, allowing the individual to perform at high level.

The mixture of all of these elements is what defines this film as such a marvelous documentary. Peralta created a film that mimicked many of the attributes of those that were documented, and really what made them so great; intensity, focus, raw, passion, tough, hard-edged, to name a few.