SXSW Film Review: Skate Dreams: Sweet, badass documentary redefines “skate like a girl” – Screens

Skate Goals

The phrase “skate like a woman” was one thing tossed round whereas rising up within the 90s as an insult, a jape to place down buddies whereas skating round, doing kickflips out on the corners of their block.

The game of skateboarding has drastically modified now. As seen within the opening of Skate Goals, a chapter in Seattle has taken again the time period, titling their group and competitors “Skate Like a Woman.” It’s right here Cambodian skater “Tin” Kouv Chansangva takes the highest prize, a pioneer in her nation, the place she’s acknowledged as the primary feminine skater.

Jessica Edwards’ documentary on the rise of the feminine skate stars of immediately is vibrant, an edgy tapestry of hard-working athletes whose success has inspired inclusivity within the sport. There’s a typical thread in women-lead sports activities documentaries that strive too onerous to cheer on what’s depicted because the inconceivable, however Skate Goals retains a stage head that seems like a weight lifted. It manages to be each inspiring but accessible, a documentary that’s celebrating the expansion of females who’ve picked up a skateboard regardless of deterrents.

Nicole Hause’s journey via the documentary is especially poignant – from competing to qualify for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Video games to her accident and recontextualization of what issues most on the subject of her profession. Hause and roommate Nora Vasconcellos have a candid dialog at a picnic desk of their yard, over bizarre social media DMs and their futures with the game. In distinction to Rachelle Vinberg’s journey with sponsorship on skate-focused TV present Betty, Hause finds happiness and a brand new wave of innovation along with her Nike sponsorship, a optimistic outlook on model collaborations that ten years in the past would have been blasted. These are moments which can be typically checked out with defeat – who wouldn’t be gutted by dropping an opportunity to compete on the Olympics? Nevertheless, Edwards’ imaginative and prescient doesn’t low cost the sweetness in self-discovery and pivoting targets, which is why these girls are so lauded by their followers.

Skate Goals is a shiny, candy, and badass movie – a kaleidoscope image of unbelievable and gifted skate boarders who’re dedicated to their completely depraved ardour. The documentary ends with Chansangva teaching younger women to not quit, younger skater women within the making. Somebody higher inform the boys the way forward for skateboarding is feminine.

Skate Dreams

Documentary Highlight, World Premiere

March 14, 2:45pm, Rollins Theatre

March 16, 5:30pm, Alamo South Lamar

Streaming March 12-14