Film Reviews

Dogtown and Z-Boys

• Rating:
• Director: Stacy Peralta
• Starring: Bob Biniak
• Details: US / 90 mins / (No Cert)

Narrated by Sean Penn, Dogtown and Z-Boys is a documentary tracing the emergence of a group of young skateboarders in an impoverished area of Santa Monica and Venice beach, which was nicknamed Dogtown. These teenage dropouts pioneered new, radical forms of skateboarding, resulting in the formation of the legendary (amongst skateboard sorts, anyway) Zephyr team. In 1975, the team gained national recognition when they performed at the Bahne-Cadillac Skateboard Championships, and managed to influence a whole new generation of boarders. A nostalgic trip through what many involved in skating see as the golden era, Dogtown and Z-Boys is a refreshing and well made insight into a subculture that has been misrepresented more often than not. Considering the fact that the filmmakers were some of the leading lights of this skating era, Dogtown and Z-Boys does have a tendency to get a little too self-congratulatory, but the events are recounted with such passion and self-belief that it eventually becomes infectious. Dude.

Review by Garreth Murphy