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"Every skateboard and surf film that Hollywood's ever made has been stupid,"
says Stacy Peralta, the director of Dogtown and Z-Boys. Peralta spent his
teenhood wheeling around Dogtown, the Venice Beach ghetto where the Zephyr
Surf Shop became an early-seventies clubhouse for Tony Alva (pictured), Jay
Adams, and the other misfits who were inadvertently creating a new sport and
a cultural phenomenon. When he heard that a big film about 'boarders was in
the works, Peralta jumped in and made his own as a preemptive strike: "It
was too valuable an experience to let Hollywood fictionalize before we were
able to tell our story ourselves." Their rags-to-riches-in-rags story — a
prize-winner at Sundance last year — is told through old photographs,
Super-8 clips, and narration by Sean Penn. "Sean grew up in our area,"
Peralta says. "We all went to school with a bunch of Spicolis." Dogtown is
Peralta's first feature; he learned about filmmaking when he ran the
skateboard company Powell Peralta and shot a cultish series of skateboarding
videos. In 1991, Powell Peralta disbanded, and Stacy went to work behind the
camera full-time: "I took the back door into directing — nonfiction
television," Peralta says. Dogtown — effectively his autobiography — is,
needless to say, a little closer to his heart. "It was a mission, but I had
this opportunity to preserve and present our story." — BEN KAPLAN Opens April 26.
Photograph by Glen E. Friedman.
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