This atmospheric film follows skaters in a difficult area of Oakland, California

Date
11 March 2015

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Produced by Levi’s Skateboarding, director Ryan Reichenfeld’s Skateboarding in Oakland follows a group of friends who skate around Oakland and its renewed Town Park Skate Park. The film focusses on the voices of Lemuel West and Terrell Newell, who have lost both friends and family often down to the gang culture that thrives in Oakland and its suburbs. They and their friends, having grown up under similar circumstances, see their skate community as a relief from this and an opportunity to extract themselves from potentially destructive lifestyles. Ryan describes Skateboarding in Oakland as “not a story about surviving tough circumstances in a harsh environment, [but] a story about perspective and thriving in the face of it all.”

Levi’s Skateboarding worked with Keith “K-Dub” Williams in developing the West Oakland park. Working alongside the community who use it every day they endeavoured to establish a safe, common ground for Oakland’s youth; a space they could take ownership of.

Towards the end of the film Lemuel, the younger of the two tells of his experience getting caught up in a shooting: “I was just hanging outside my older brother’s house… and I got shot. It went through all tendons, all muscle, and it hit no bone. I mean, I don’t know how many bones I got in my ankle but a 9mm bullet went through my ankle and hit no bones… like, how is that possible? It woke me up about a lot of stuff though, just woke me up about life. I coulda been taken out of skating forever. But in my skate world, when everybody found out, my phone was blowing up, made me feel like, damn if there’s this many people who really care about me I have a meaning in this world, like, I have a purpose.”

Ryan Reichenfeld is a skateboarder, visual effects artist and film director based in Los Angeles. His work has been featured on MTV, Pitchfork, Dazed and The New York Times amongst many others.

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Levi’s Skateboarding & Ryan Reichenfeld: Skateboarding in Oakland

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Levi’s Skateboarding & Ryan Reichenfeld: Skateboarding in Oakland

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Levi’s Skateboarding & Ryan Reichenfeld: Skateboarding in Oakland

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Levi’s Skateboarding & Ryan Reichenfeld: Skateboarding in Oakland

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Levi’s Skateboarding & Ryan Reichenfeld: Skateboarding in Oakland

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Levi’s Skateboarding & Ryan Reichenfeld: Skateboarding in Oakland

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Levi’s Skateboarding & Ryan Reichenfeld: Skateboarding in Oakland

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About the Author

Billie Muraben

Billie studied illustration at Camberwell College of Art before completing an MA in Visual Communication at the Royal College of Art. She joined It’s Nice That as a Freelance Editorial Assistant back in January 2015 and continues to work with us on a freelance basis.

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