''Skaterdater'' is a 1965 American short student film. It was produced by Marshal Backlar, and written and directed by
Noel Black
Noel Black (June 30, 1937 – July 5, 2014) was an American film and television director, screenwriter, and producer.
Black was born in Chicago, Illinois. He won awards at the 1966 Cannes Film Festival for an 18-minute short subject filmed in ...
.
Summary
The film tells a story with no dialogue. The group of boy skaters are suddenly at a point when one of the boys sees a young girl, and becomes interested in her. This causes a rift with a second boy, who challenges him to a skating duel that goes down a hilly street. The first boy loses; however, he gets the girl, and shortly, a few other girls are seen and become interested in the boys, too. The
surf rock-esque soundtrack was composed by
Mike Curb
Michael Curb (born December 24, 1944) is an American musician, record company executive, motorsports car owner, philanthropist, and former politician. He is also the founder of Curb Records where he presently serves as the chairman. Curb also ...
and
Nick Venet with
Davie Allan and the Arrows playing "Skaterdater Rock".
Production
The skateboarders were members of the neighborhood Imperial Skateboard Club from
Torrance, California
Torrance is a city in the Los Angeles metropolitan area located in Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles County, California, United States. The city is part of what is known as the South Bay (Los Angeles County), South Bay region of the m ...
. Their names are
Gary Hill
Gary Hill (born April 4, 1951) is an American artist who lives and works in Seattle, Washington. Often viewed as one of the foundational artists in video art, based on the single-channel work and video- and sound-based installations of the 1970s ...
, Gregg Carroll, Mike Mel, Bill McKaig, Gary Jennings, Bruce McKaig and Rick Anderson. Melissa Mallory played the girl of the interest of one of the boy skaters. Most of the action shots were taken in Torrance,
Redondo Beach, and
Palos Verdes Estates
Palos Verdes Estates (''Palos Verdes'', Spanish for "Green Sticks") is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States, situated on the Palos Verdes Peninsula. The city was master-planned by the noted American landscape architect and ...
. The final shot was Averill Park in
San Pedro.
Reception and legacy
It was the first film on skateboarding. It was distributed theatrically, both domestically and internationally, by United Artists. It was reviewed extensively by media outlets including ''
Time
Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...
'' magazine. It was the winner of the
Palme d'Or
The Palme d'Or (; en, Golden Palm) is the highest prize awarded at the Cannes Film Festival. It was introduced in 1955 by the festival's organizing committee. Previously, from 1939 to 1954, the festival's highest prize was the Grand Prix du Fe ...
for Best Short Film at the
1966 Cannes Film Festival.
It was also nominated for an
Academy Award
The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...
in the Best Short Subject category.
First prizes in international film festivals included Moscow and Venice.
''Skaterdater'' has had lasting cultural relevance in the film industry. It has been the subject of scholarly articles on
cinematography
Cinematography (from ancient Greek κίνημα, ''kìnema'' "movement" and γράφειν, ''gràphein'' "to write") is the art of motion picture (and more recently, electronic video camera) photography.
Cinematographers use a lens to focu ...
, and entrepreneur
Steve Mariotti included it in a 2017 list of "15 films every entrepreneur must see".
The
Academy Film Archive
The Academy Film Archive is part of the Academy Foundation, established in 1944 with the purpose of organizing and overseeing the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ educational and cultural activities, including the preservation of m ...
preserved ''Skaterdater'' in 2010.
See also
*
List of American films of 1965
References
External links
*
Skaterdater' (entire film)
*
{{Short Film Palme d'Or Winners
1965 short films
1960s sports films
1965 films
Films set in Los Angeles
Films shot in Los Angeles
Films without speech
Short Film Palme d'Or winners
Skateboarding videos
American student films
1960s English-language films