Dogtown and Z-Boys (2001)

Director:

Stacy Peralta

Writers:

Stacy Peralta (written by) &
Craig Stecyk (written by)

Release Date:

3 January 2002 (Australia)

Genre:

Documentary | Sport

Tagline:

A Film About The Birth Of The Now

Plot:

Documentary about the pioneering 1970s Zephyr skating team.

Plot Keywords:

Los Angeles California | Venice Beach | Skateboard | 1970s | Class Conflict

Awards:

6 wins & 5 nominations

Cast

Sean Penn	...	Narrator (voice)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Jay Adams	...	Himself (Zephyr skate team)
Tony Alva	...	Himself (Zephyr skate team)
Jeff Ament	...	Himself
Bob Biniak	...	Himself (Zephyr skate team)
Steve Caballero	...	Himself (skateboard champion)
Paul Constantineau	...	Himself (Zephyr skate team)
'Baby' Paul Cullen	...	Himself (Zephyr skate team)
Skip Engblom	...	Himself (Zephyr co-founder)
Steve Freidman	...	Surfer (archive footage)
Tony Friedkin	...	Himself
Glen E. Friedman	...	Himself
Marty Grimes	...	Himself (Dogtown skater)
David Hackett	...	Himself (70's skateboard champion)
Tony Hawk	...	Himself
Allan Jeff Ho	...	Himself
Jeff Ho	...	Himself (Zephyr co-founder)
Wes Humpston	...	Himself (Dogtown skater / artist)
Shogo Kubo	...	Himself (Zephyr skate team)
Joe Leahy	...	50s Voice Announcer (voice)
Ronnie Jay Leipold	...	Himself (Zephyr surf team) (as Ronnie Jay)
Ian MacKaye	...	Himself
Jim Muir	...	Himself (Zephyr skate team)
Peggy Oki	...	Herself (Zephyr skate team)
Steve Olson	...	Himself
Stacy Peralta	...	Himself (Zephyr skate team)
Jake Phelps	...	Himself (editor, Thrasher magazine)
Nathan Pratt	...	Himself (Zephyr skate team)
Mark Reiter	...	Himself (70's New York skater)
Fran Richards	...	Himself (Transworld skateboarding magazine)
Henry Rollins	...	Himself
Wentzle Ruml	...	Himself (Zephyr skate team)
Allen Sarlo	...	Himself (Zephyr skate team)
Tom Sims	...	Himself (70's skateboard champion)
Craig Stecyk	...	Himself (Zephyr co-founder; writer / photographer)

Directed by
Stacy Peralta

Writing credits
Stacy Peralta		(written by) &
Craig Stecyk		(written by)

Produced by
Glen E. Friedman	....	co-producer
Debra MacCulloch	....	associate producer
Stephen Nemeth	....	co-producer
Agi Orsi	....	producer
Daniel Ostroff	....	co-producer
Christine Triano	....	associate producer
Jay Wilson	....	executive producer

Original Music by
Paul Crowder
Terry Wilson

Cinematography by
Sebastian Jungwirth
Peter Pilafian

Film Editing by
Paul Crowder

Production Design by
Craig Stecyk

Production Management
Agi Orsi	....	unit production manager

Sound Department
Alan Barker	....	sound recordist
Dane A. Davis	....	supervising sound editor
John Fennell	....	digital sound transferer
Michael Gatt	....	sound recordist
Paul Hackner	....	sound re-recording engineer
Eddie Kim	....	supervising sound editor
David McRell	....	sound re-recording mixer
Joe Milner	....	sound re-recording mixer
Lynette Villalobos	....	assistant sound editor

Visual Effects by
Robert Davis Oh	....	film recording technician

Camera and Electrical Department
Andrew Bikichky	....	assistant camera
Pat Darrin	....	archival photography
Matthew McNeil	....	motion-control camera
Modi	....	additional photographer
David Sammons	....	assistant camera

Editorial Department
Michael Hatzer	....	color timer
Scott Juergens	....	additional editor
Scott Juergens	....	assistant editor: avid
Andy Lichtstein	....	colorist
Gisela Weibel	....	assistant editor (as Gizi Weibel)
Royce Smith	....	co-color timer (uncredited)

Music Department
Paul Crowder	....	music selection supervisor
Debra MacCulloch	....	music supervisor
Howard Paar	....	executive soundtrack producer
Stacy Peralta	....	music selection supervisor
Marc Reiter	....	music supervisor
Terry Wilson	....	music editor

Other crew
Don Behrns	....	archive film footage
Glen E. Friedman	....	creative consultant
Hal Jepsen	....	archive film footage
Jeff Roe	....	symphony artist: chainsaw
Chris Rohloff	....	archive film footage
Grant Rohloff	....	archive film footage
Marie Whitaker	....	assistant: Daniel Ostroff

Thanks
Richard Greenberg	....	special thanks
Trudi Green	....	thanks
Takuji Masuda	....	thanks
Sato Masuzawa	....	thanks
Sharon Osbourne	....	thanks
Jimmy Page	....	thanks
Peter Paterno	....	thanks
Sean Penn	....	thanks
Robert Plant	....	thanks
Rick Rubin	....	thanks
Steve Shank	....	thanks
Alan Somers	....	thanks: end titles
Robin Wright Penn	....	thanks
Neil Young	....	thanks

Production Companies

• Agi Orsi Productions
• Vans Off the Wall

Distributors

• Cinema Mondo (2001) (Finland) (theatrical)
• Cinemien (2002) (Netherlands) (theatrical)
• Fandango (2004) (Italy) (theatrical)
• Homescreen (200?) (Netherlands) (video)
• Mongrel Media (Canada)
• Sony Pictures Classics (Canada)
• Sony Pictures Classics (USA)
• Tohokushinsha Film (2002) (Japan) (theatrical)
• ottfilm GmbH (Germany)

Other Companies

• Danetracks  sound post-production

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for language and some drug references.

Runtime:

91 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White | Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Finland:S | Iceland:L | Australia:M | Brazil:Livre | Germany:o.Al. | Netherlands:AL | UK:15 | USA:PG-13

Filming Locations:

Santa Monica, California, USA

Company:

Agi Orsi Productions

Trivia:

One of 'Sean Penn' 's reasons for signing on as Narrator was that he himself had lived and surfed in and near the Dogtown area.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: A brief shot of a news article/photo of the Z-Boys is flopped (so that the text is backwards).

Quotes:

Shogo Kubo: We were treated like kings at every place that we went to.

Movie Connections:

Featured in The 2002 IFP/West Independent Spirit Awards (2002) (TV)

Soundtrack:

Lollipops and Roses

When skateboarding became more than nose wheelies and handstands.

Anyone looking to learn more about the development of skateboarding should find Dogtown and Z-Boys adequate research material. This is not to be confused with Lords of Dogtown, that sorry Hollywood attempt to cash in on the success of the original Dogtown revival.

Directed by Stacey Peralta, a former Z-Boys himself as well as pro skater and mastermind behind the 80s Bones Brigade, and co-written with skateboarding photojournalist Craig Stecyk, this documentary traces how a group of surfing kids from Southern California's mean streets (known as Dogtown) who formed the Z-Boys skateboard team (actually there was one girl--Peggy Oki) revolutionized skateboarding. The film contains interviews from nearly all of the Z-Boys (Chris Cahill's whereabouts are unknown) with the most noteable being bad ass Tony Alva and the youngest, Jay Adams, who's talents (along with Perlata) seemed to transcend the rest of the teams. There are interviews of the team's (and the Dogtown shop) founders, surfboard designer Jeff Ho, Skip Engbloom, and Craig Stecyk. There are also interviews of folks like Tony Hawk (obviously), Ian McKaye (Fugazi), and Henry Rollins, who were young kids in the 70s when Dogtown was making it's influence on skateboarding (skateboarding was a whole other context in previous years as the documentary explains).

It really shows you not only who the Dogtown team was and how they formed, but why their style changed not only skateboarding tricks (pool skating became immensley popular, and thus gave way to vert skating), but also facilitated the sport (though not into the extreme commercialism it is today) as more than just the fleeting fad it had been earlier as these surfing kids who's waves ran out in the early morning needed ways to spend their time and eventually got into skateboarding. The days of Russ Howell and Alan Gelfand were long over as the Dogtown, at least through the publicity of their skate team, paved the way for the new generation of skaters. Because Dogtown got all the attention, they were able to push skating to the next step.

It's a great documentary in the way that it is put together, though Stacey Peralta always knew how to do this even when producing the Bones Brigade mini movies/skate demos like "Ban This" and "Search for Animal Chin." Narrated by Sean Penn, the film is accompanied by a fantastic soundtrack, contains lots of terrific archive footage, and lots of interview to give you a genuine feel of who the Z-Boys were and how they made their mark on skateboarding.