I freely admit that I am a poser when it comes to street cultures. Take skateboarding, for instance. The first real exposure I had was with Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, the seminal video game that brought "action sports" to mainstream audiences with a surprisingly dead-on representation of the current skating culture. Believing that what I see in modern skateboarding is the way it's always been done turned out to be the furthest thing from the truth, and the crash course in skating history told in Dogtown and Z-Boys is a welcome and eye-opening experience.

Narrated by Sean Penn, Dogtown and Z-Boys is a documentary collaboration between former Z-Boy Stacy Peralta and long-time skating photographer Craig Stecyk. The film chronicles the evolution of skate culture in the urban slums of Venice and Santa Monica (known together as "Dogtown"), from its roots as an extension of surfing to its stylistic revival at the hands of the Zephyr team (the Z-Boys). Under the guidance of surfboard designer Jeff Ho, the Zephyr team of skaters assaulted the dilapidated local landscape, in the process inventing the low-to-the-ground Bertelman style, sessioning the first empty pools, and pulling off the very first vertical air maneuvers. They did this all with an uncanny flair, adhering to the motto "Going big only works as long as you look good doing it".

Through vintage film footage and a plethora of high-quality still photographs, Dogtown provides a rich visual exploration of the Southern California skating culture in the 1970s. The excellent skating montages are accompanied by hard-rocking tunes from the likes of the Rollins Band and Fugazi, and the soundtrack is filled with punk and metal staples that capture the free-form energy of the skate culture quite well. Unfortunately, the film loses huge points for its inexplicable use of Rod Stewart's "Maggie May" to score a skating montage scene. You just don't do that in a skating film, ever. Even I know that.

Despite its infectious enthusiasm, Dogtown manages to provide a detailed historical record of the Z-Boy era. Knowing only of current legends like Tony Hawk, Steve Caballero and Rodney Mullen, it was fascinating to see the true innovators in the sport like Tony Alva, Jay Adams and Stacy Peralta carving drained swimming pools and busting previously unheard-of tricks in the mid-70s. These guys skated with a surf-inspired sense of fluidity and a healthy dose of fuck-you attitude, and their unorthodox style is something that is visibly missing from the modern skating landscape. It was particularly gratifying to see the origin and development of the modern vert tricks that are virtually synonymous with the sport nowadays.

The film is enjoyable for most of the 98 minute running time, despite a few hiccups. Apparently, tight deadlines condensed the production schedule such that editing began before shooting had finished, and as a result the film has an oddly non-linear feel to it, with certain scenes noticeably out of order. While the first hour and change is tightly paced and covers several key points effectively, the remaining segments are loosely-spaced and return to themes that were visited towards the beginning. Consequently the film seems to wrap up twenty minutes before it actually ends; trimming those extra scenes, or editing them with better integration, would have resulted in a much cleaner and more polished work.

In any case, Dogtown and Z-Boys is still a quality film, and an excellent lesson in the history of skateboarding and the evolution of skate culture. It's one of the most fun and entertaining documentaries I've seen in recent years, and a fine tribute to some of the skaters who broke new ground in the sport. I'm not shitting you.

For more information, visit the well-designed official website.

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