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A jaunty ride through London’s skateboarding scene, The Skatebook pulls from a wide range of perspectives to explore a culture that, per one interviewee, is ‘60 per cent community, 40 per cent skateboarding’. The UK filmmaker Sofia Negri surveys newcomers, veterans and everyone in between for the work, pairing their words with lively hand-drawn characters who ride in and out of her sketchbooks, and through live-action skatepark scenes. From these voices and images, a complex portrait of the skating landscape emerges – one in which the learning horizon is endless and most people are welcoming, but, even amid what one old-schooler calls a ‘watered-down’ culture, some members can still be a real drag.
Director: Sofia Negri
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Animals and humans
Why be dragons? How massive, reptilian beasts entered our collective imagination
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Rituals and celebrations
Flirtation, negotiation and vodka – or how to couple up in 1950s rural Poland
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Technology and the self
In the town once named Asbestos, locals ponder the voids industry left in its wake
16 minutes
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Biology
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Cities
A lush, whirlwind tribute to the diversity of life in a northern English county
3 minutes
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Stories and literature
Robert Frost’s poetic reflection on youth, as read in his unforgettable baritone
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Sex and sexuality
After a sextortion scam, Eugene conducts an unblushing survey of masturbation
14 minutes
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Film and visual culture
‘Bags here are rarely innocent’ – how filmmakers work around censorship in Iran
8 minutes
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Language and linguistics
Closed captions suck. Here’s one artist’s inventive project to make them better
8 minutes