''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 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, United States. The city is part of what is known as the South Bay region of the metropolitan area. Torrance has of beachfront on the Pacific O ...

. Their names are Gary Hill, 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 p ...

. 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 event (philosophy), events that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various me ...

'' magazine. It was the winner of the Palme d'Or for Best Short Film at the

1966 Cannes Film Festival The 19th Cannes Film Festival was held from 5 to 20 May 1966. To honour the festival's 20th anniversary, a special prize was given. The Grand Prix du Festival International du Film went to the '' Signore & Signori'' by Pietro Germi, in tie with ...

. 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 preserved ''Skaterdater'' in 2010.

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

Summary

Production

Reception and legacy

See also

References

External links