Dogtown & Z-Boys

A FILM BY Stacy Peralta

Brash, giddy and an absolute trip!

- Ain't It Cool News

Even if you couldn't care less about skateboarding, Dogtown and Z-boys serves up an intriguing slice of American culture.

- Richard Roeper, Ebert & Roeper

The film has an infectious enthusiasm and we're touched by the film's conviction that all life centered on that place, that time and that sport.

- Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun Times

The rare and wondrous nonfiction film that transcends its subject to become a thing of beauty in itself, a slice of pop-cultural history that shimmers with life.

- Ann Hornaday, Washington Post

This is pop history that blows your hair back.

- Geoff Pevere, The Toronto Star

Synopsis

The high-flying "vert" (i.e. vertical) style of skateboarding is now such a defining element of international youth culture that it's hard to believe it wasn't invented by a skateboard manufacturer. In fact, it was invented in the street, in a place called Dogtown, "where the debris meets the sea." Dogtown was the name of a section of Santa Monica and Venice that lay almost in ruins by the early 1970s, a rundown urban beach neighborhood with a legacy of outlaw surfing. It bred aggressive, territorial competitors with a street-smart sense of style. It was a center for customized cars, graffiti, street gangs and surfboard design.