Dogtown and Z-Boys is a new documentary about the creation of a sport. That sport is skateboarding. The conventional style of skateboarding was turned on its ear in the mid-70's by the Zephyr Team, a group of kids from a slum area between Santa Monica and Venice beaches in California known as Dogtown. Taking surfing as their mantra, when the drought hit California in the 1970s the swimming pools emptied they were part of a new guerrilla sport.
irected and co-written by one of the original Zephyr team Stacy Peralta, the other writer was Craig Stecyk whose magazine articles in Skateboarder magazine helped fuel the mystique of the team, Dogtown and Z-Boys is a fascinating glimpse into the creation of a sport out of a culture of outlaw surfing. The music soundtrack is apt, to say the least, the interviews today with the former heroes are revealing, occasionally poignant and wry. There is towards the end a feeling that the film is slightly self-congratulatory but its ability to capture an era, an ethos, an exhilaration is undeniable.
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