Page 30 - ARUBA TODAY

A30 PEOPLE & ARTS
Thursday 21 February 2019

Rolling in the deep: HBO film looks at roller skate culture

By MARK KENNEDY proached a roller rink at plained that roller skating
Associated Press midnight. It was far from teaches patience, ath-
NEW YORK (AP) — First-time funereal: There was a line leticism, purpose, positive
documentary filmmakers down the block, music reinforcement, determi-
Tina Brown and Dyana Win- was pumping, skaters were nation — and getting up
kler lugged their cameras dressed to kill and every- after a fall. “Roller skating
to Central Park in New York one seemed to know each is a little bit more than go-
one day to capture the last other. They soon learned ing in circles on a couple of
few people still passionate that each city had differ- wheels,” he said. “It’s fun.
about roller skating. Rinks ent skate dance styles — It’s an enjoyable exercise.
across the country were Baltimore has “Snapping,” It’s healthy and there are a
gone. The activity seemed Atlanta has the “Jacknife” lot of great benefits. But the
dead. “We were shooting and in Texas you do the socioeconomics benefits
a piece about what we This image released b HBO shows a scene from the documentary “Slow Walk” — and how to roller skating are higher
thought was the end of the “United Skates,” premiering Feb. 18, 2019 on HBO. such a tight fellowship than anybody can think
era of skating with what we Associated Press among skaters is forged of.” “Name me another
thought were the last men ture of roller skating, which tors and masses of police, that they will fly across the activity that’s family-af-
standing,” said Winkler. is under threat. something not used when country to get together. fordable, that you can go
“We thought, ‘Who roller “We hope that our viewers whites come to skate. It Embraced by the com- to on a Saturday and take
skates anymore?’” will learn something they also shows how rinks are munity, Winkler and Brown five members of your fam-
They may have come for didn’t know about, fall in being closed as communi- never paid for a hotel room ily and you can skate for
a funeral but they found love with something they ties chase more revenue or car rental or a meal while four hours and everybody
something else entirely. Two didn’t know about, and by rezoning for retail use. crisscrossing the country in- can have a good time and
young African-American maybe be compelled to “There’s a bigger story to terviewing some 100 skat- exercise.” “United Skates” is
skaters approached them care enough to protect it,” tell and we can use the joy- ers. The skaters themselves a documentary made par-
and asked them what they Winkler said. ous beauty of roller skating opened their homes and tially by the subjects them-
were doing. “They said, The documentary explores as the sugar to spoon-feed drove them around. selves. Winkler and Brown,
‘Skating’s not dead. It just how roller rinks were the some of these bigger issues. The documentary features who began the project as
went underground,’” Win- sites of some of the earli- That’s when we started to interviews with hip-hop leg- beginner skaters, enlisted
kler recalled. est fights of the civil-rights peel back the layers,” Win- ends like Salt-N-Pepa, Coo- skaters to shoot scenes and
Winkler and Brown decided era and how they later be- kler said. lio and Vin Rock of Naugh- used their rink skills to help
to go find it. Five years and came the launching pads That day in Central Park ty by Nature. John Legend capture footage.
500 hours of footage later, for hip-hop artists. changed the trajectory — is an executive producer “They would push us from
they’ve emerged with the It shows how unofficial and the lives — of the film- and the film received the behind at these high
HBO film “United Skates,” a segregation lives on, with makers. The young skaters Documentary Audience speeds and we would just
fascinating look at the rich so-called “adult nights” they met invited the wom- Award at the Tribeca Film focus on the camera and
African-American subcul- that feature metal detec- en to come and see what Festival. just pray,” said Winkler.
had happened to skating. The cameras also follow “It really was collabora-
And so they got on a night Reggie Brown, a roller- tion. They like to say we
bus to Richmond, Virginia. skating ambassador and taught them how to shoot
The duo — one Austra- community advocate. In and they taught us how to
lian, one American — ap- a phone interview, he ex- skate.”q

Carsie Blanton makes disillusionment fun

Many, especially on the girl vocals for a lack of emo-
left, have sometimes been tional depth. On a lovely
preachy, literal or too full of ballad called “Harbor,” she
themselves to be bearable. counsels risk-taking: “Lov-
Now comes Carsie Blan- ers run to ruin, soldiers run
ton, a New Orleans-based to war, ships are safe in
singer and part-time sex harbor, but that ain’t what
blogger, whose entry, ships are for.”
“Buck Up,” offers a radical Blanton’s political take
but playful take on it all. emerges vividly on “Ameri-
She is disillusioned, yes, but can Kid,” a song about the
This cover image released by
So Ferocious Records shows she isn’t taking things too world we’re leaving to our
“Buck Up,” the latest release seriously. Blanton blends children. It’s a danger zone
by Carsie Blanton. revolutionary politics with for cliches, but Blanton’s
Associated Press daring commentary about take is original and cutting.
By SCOTT STROUD relationships, all laid out on On the title cut, she chan-
Associated Press a bed of clever, label-resis- nels John Prine so vividly
Carsie Blanton, “Buck Up” tant songcraft. A rough-cut that she offers the song-
(So Ferocious Records) lover she’s attracted to, for writing legend a writing
Songwriters of all political example, has “got a kiss like credit in the liner notes. The
persuasions have labored summer in the dirty South, song, a manifesto for cop-
to define the odd moment but I don’t mind at all.” ing, caps off an engaging
we’ve been living through It would be wrong, though, album that succeeds by
since the U.S. election of to mistake Blanton’s some- finding joy in the face of
2016 upended everything. times-graphic lyrics or little- disillusionment.q