Skate Video Essentials: Classic Skate Stories

This screening program, presented in conjunction with MoMI’s exhibition Recording the Ride: The Rise of Street-Style Skate Videos, features three early classics that helped define the skate video genre. Through loose narrative frameworks, each of these films, which range from short to feature-length, expresses the exuberance, camaraderie, and rebelliousness that would come to characterize skate culture. 

Program includes: 

Skaterdater 
Dir. Noel Black. 1965, 18 mins. U.S. 35mm. With Gary Hill, Gregg Carroll, Mike Mel, Bill McKaig, Gary Jennings, Bruce McKaig, Rick Anderson, Melissa Mallory. Widely considered to be the first skate film, Skaterdater is a boy-meets-girl story set among teenaged skateboarders in suburban California. Directed by Noel Black while he was a student at UCLA, the film was screened theatrically and won the Palme d’Or for Best Short Film at the 1966 Cannes Film Festival. 

The Search for Animal Chin 
Dir. Stacey Peralta. 1987, 65 mins. U.S. Digital projection. With Tony Hawk, Steve Caballero, Mike McGill, Lance Mountain, Tommy Guerrero, C.R. Stecyk III. Twenty years after Skaterdater, the beginning of the skate video genre unofficially began with the production of videos by Stacy Peralta for the Powell Peralta company. The Search for Animal Chin perfectly reflects the antic aesthetic of Powell Peralta’s mid-1980s classics, featuring such legends as Tony Hawk, Lance Mountain, and Steve Caballero canvassing the globe for a missing skater. 

Video Days 
Dirs. Spike Jonze and Mark Gonzales. 1991, 24 mins. U.S. Digital projection. With Mark Gonzales, Guy Mariano, Rudy Johnson, Jordan Richter, Jason Lee. The skate video genre truly came into its own beginning in the late 1980s, and this short made by legendary skater Mark Gonzales and photographer-turned-director Spike Jonze was a pivotal, defining entry. Filled with boundary-pushing skating and playful personalities, Video Days is one of the most influential, beloved videos in skateboarding history. 

Tickets: $17.50 / $12 senior and students / $10 youth (ages 3–17) / discounted for MoMI members ($7–$11). There is a $1.50 transaction fee per ticket for all online purchases. The cost of admission may be applied toward a same-day purchase of a membership. 

Order tickets. Please pick up tickets at the Museum’s admissions desk upon arrival. All seating is general admission.