Stacy Peralta Movies
- 2008
- Add Crips and Bloods: Made in America to QueueAdd Crips and Bloods: Made in America to top of Queue
Narrated by Academy Award-winning actor Forest Whitaker, Dogtown and Z-Boys director Stacy Peralta's unflinching documentary chronicles one of the longest-running civil wars in the history of America though a deeply humanistic lens. The Bloods and Crips are two of South Los Angeles' most notorious African-American gangs. While many outsiders simply cannot understand the decades-long cycle of despair and destruction that has come to define their daily lives, the individuals who comprise each gang are not simply mindless, gun-toting thugs, but real people with real families who have become caught up in a struggle from which the only escape is often death. Beginning with an illuminating look at the genesis of L.A.'s gang culture, Crips and Bloods: Made in America follows the bloody feud that would stretch on for a grueling four decades, revealing the turf wars, hierarchy, family structure, gun culture, and stringent rules through interviews with gangsters past and present, as well as experts, activists, and academics. Throughout the film, the numerous issues blanketing the streets of South L.A. with a deep sense of dread are reflected upon by gang intervention experts, former gang members, writers, and academics in an effort to examine the erosion of identity that helps to perpetrate black self-hatred, prison culture, and the disappearance of the black father in the home. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Forest Whitaker
- 2006
For nearly half a century, grassroots filmmakers Spyder Wills and Greg Weaver trekked around the world with their movie cameras, shooting now-legendary footage of one and only one subject: surfing. On multiple continents, with extraordinary cinematographic intimacy, Wills and Weaver captured nothing less than the evolution of this sport as it spread, slowly but definitively, around the world. And in time, helmers of both features and documentaries, such as John Milius (Big Wednesday), Larry Yates (The Forgotten Island of Santosha) and John Severson (Pacific Vibrations) began to turn to the Wills/Weaver image archive as a definitive resource of footage for use in their films. For quite some time, film historians regarded much of the pair's footage that went unused in the theatrically-released projects as permanently lost; recently, much of that rediscovered footage was recovered. It forms the backbone of Greg Schell's documentary Chasing the Lotus. Schell intercuts rare super-8 images shot by Weaver and Wills with recently-shot interviews and archival photographic stills chronicling the filmmakers' groundbreaking, decades-long creative journey that paved the way for much of our contemporary understanding and perception of surfing. Jeff Bridges narrates. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jeff Bridges, Gerry Lopez, (more)
The true story of the kids who created modern skateboard culture is recreated in this drama. In the early '70s, skateboards were seen as a fad of the 1960s that had all but died out, but in a rough-and-tumble Venice, CA, community known as "Dogtown," that was about to change. Tony Alva (Victor Rasuk), Stacy Peralta (John Robinson), and Jay Adams (Emile Hirsch) were three guys who liked to surf the rugged beaches around Venice and hung out at the Zephyr Surf Shop, a store run by Skip Engblom (Heath Ledger) that stocked gear for adventurous surfers and skateboarders. With the advent of new urethane wheels that connected with concrete in a way old metal and rubber wheels could not, Tony, Stacy, and Jay began exploring ways to translate radical surf style to skateboarding, and the guys invented a new way to skate inside the smooth, round surfaces of empty pools, employing vertical moves and edge flips that added a new and dramatic spin to skating. It didn't take long for word to spread about the wild new style of the Z-Boys, and they quickly became local celebrities, and later nationwide skating stars, though sudden fame took its toll on these young men. The true story of Lords of Dogtown was previously the basis of the acclaimed documentary Dogtown and Z-Boys, directed by former Z-Boy Stacy Peralta, who like Tony Alva served as a consultant on this project. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Emile Hirsch, Victor Rasuk, (more)
With the documentary Dogtown and Z-Boys, skater-cum-filmmaker Stacy Peralta introduced viewers to the history of the West Coast skateboarding culture and made a huge splash at the 2000 Sundance Film Festival, taking home both the Documentary Directing Award and the Documentary Audience Award. For this follow-up effort, Peralta leaves the land for the sea, focusing his lens on the world of surfing. Narrated by Sean Penn, just as Dogtown and Z-Boys was, Riding Giants attempts to trace the origins of surfing and also explore the growth and progress of surf culture. Among the surfing luminaries who chime in on topics varying from the business of the sport to "the big wave" are Laird Hamilton, Greg Noll, and Jeff Clark. Hoping to find the critical success akin to its predecessor, Riding Giants premiered at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sean Penn, Dick Brewer, (more)
- 2002
- R
- Add Stoked: The Rise and Fall of Gator to QueueAdd Stoked: The Rise and Fall of Gator to top of Queue
As a teenager growing up in the mid-'70s, Mark "Gator" Rogowski became a passionate skateboarder. With time, he became quite good on a deck and, by the early '80s, his skills on the vertical ramp, combined with his cocky charm and surfer-dude good looks, helped to make him one of the top professionals on the skating circuit. Between endorsement deals and performance fees, he was earning more than a hundred-thousand dollars per year by the time he was 18. Not surprisingly, Rogowski soon found himself living a fast-lane lifestyle, partying all night, and dating supermodels. But when the popularity of ramp skating fell in favor of street skating, Gator found his career going into a skid. Over several years, he struggled to get his demons under control, trying, with no real success, to reinvent himself and regain his place in the public eye. In 1991, the bottom finally fell out of Rogowski's life: At the age of 24, he found himself behind bars, confessing to rape and murder charges . Stoked: The Rise and Fall of Gator is a documentary which chronicles Rogowski's personal successes and private failures. The film includes interviews with fellow skating legends Tony Hawk, Stacy Peralta, and Jason Jessee. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gator Rogowski, Tony Hawk, (more)
In the mid-'70s, skateboarding was widely seen as a fad of the 1960s that had all but died out, except for a handful of committed fans in California. But that began to change with the emerge of the Z-Boys, a team of teenaged skateboarders who emerged from a decaying urban community in Santa Monica, CA. Hard-core surfers who sought to translate the hot-dogging stunts of world-class wave riders onto their skateboards began hanging out at the Zephyr Productions Surf Shop, a store that stocked top-grade equipment for local surfers and skaters, and with the help of the store's owner Jeff Ho, twelve of the skaters organized themselves into a team to compete at local skate events. Soon the radical moves and scruffy-streetwise style of the Zephyr Skate Team -- the Z-Boys for short -- upended public preconceptions of skateboarding as a sport and a lifestyle, and the wild style of Z-Boy skaters such as Tony Alva, Jim Muir, and Jay Adams made them celebrities who blazed the trail for the extreme sports movement. But while the Z-Boys' success brought them a measure of fame and fortune -- lucrative endorsement contracts, deals to manufacture their own custom skateboards, and even movie roles (Tony Alva starred opposite Leif Garrett in Skateboard, while Z-Boy Stacy Peralta was top-billed in Freewheelin') -- their fame proved to be fleeting, and several of the Z-Boys fell prey to drugs, crime, and ego. Dogtown and Z-Boys is a documentary by former Z-Boy Stacy Peralta that chronicles the glory days of the Z-Boys through footage of the skaters in their prime and interviews with the pioneers of the Southern California skate scene. Rock musicians and noted skate enthusiasts Ian MacKaye, Henry Rollins, and Jeff Ament also appear to discuss the importance of the Z-Boys' legacy; Sean Penn narrates. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sean Penn
- 1989
- R
The fourth tape in a series which shows skateboarding as a vital and exciting sport. Features Hawk, Caballero, Guerrero, Harris, Hountain, McGill, Barbee, Mullen, Powell, and Peralta. ~ All Movie Guide
- 1987
Skateboarding exploits featuring bowl, streetstyle and ramp methods. ~ All Movie Guide
Martha Coolidge directed this comedy taking place at fictional Pacific Tech, concerning incoming freshman Mitch (Gabe Jarret), a high school student whose Science Fair project made important inroads into laser beam technology. Mitch has been recruited by famed physics professor Hathaway (William Atherton), who asks Mitch to work in his laboratory. On campus, Mitch becomes roommates with the brilliant Chris Knight (Val Kilmer), legendary as the smartest freshman in the history of the college; but now, as a senior, he is less interested in his studies and more interested in having fun. It turns out that Hathaway is enlisting his students, unbeknownst to them, as a slave labor force to do research in developing a state-of-the-art laser device for the Defense Department (he uses his government grant funds to build a house). But Chris and Mitch begin to suspect that something is amiss with Hathaway's project. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Val Kilmer, Gabe Jarret, (more)
A handful of legendary West Coast skateboarders are captured at the top of their game in this blend of action and comedy. A photographer (Kurt "Mellow Cat" Ledterman) has been told to find something new and exciting to cover for his next magazine assignment. As luck would have it, the photographer soon crosses paths with a team of radical skaters who offer to take him on a tour of California's best skate spots. The tour soon turns into a comic free-for-all of wild skateboard action and inspired hijinks. Skateboard Madness features vintage skate footage dominated by Stacy Peralta, Kent Senatore, Gregg Ayres, and Dan "Mini Shred" Smith; Peralta later went on to direct a definitive skateboarding documentary entitled Dogtown and Z-Boys. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- 1976
Skateboarding is the only passion in teenager Peralta's life. ~ All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Russell Howell
