Coming-of-age flick Skateland is lighter than your typical drama but more serious than a mere comedy. It occupies that amorphous area between childhood and the adult world, told through a pack of friends in a small East Texas town. And there’s a roller rink, of course. Skateland has two more screenings at SIFF: today at 2:30 p.m. at the Uptown, and June 6 at the Kirkland Performance Hall. Yesterday I spoke with the film’s writer-director, cinematographer, and editor.
I was surprised to hear about how different the first draft of the Skateland script started out compared to the final film—that it was going to be a comedy about a roller skater trying to qualify for the Moscow Olympics.
Anthony Burns, director: Early early on, [co-writers and producers] Heath and Brandon Freeman had an idea, a comedy about this kid who worked at a roller skating rink who wanted to get into the Olympics. Obviously, it’s a complete fantasy–there’s no roller skating in the Olympics, but that was the movie. And that didn’t last very long; we ended up wanting to do a much more serious film. But that was the initial idea that brought us together, and it evolved really quickly into something totally different.
So did you used to go to roller rinks as a kid?
A: Everybody did that I grew up with. In Longview, Texas, where I went to high school, the roller rink was called Skateland. And a lot of the reactions from people who have seen the film is that they had a Skateland in their hometown too.
Peter Simonite, cinematographer: There’s one in just about every small town.
A: Lots of people had their first kiss during a lock-in. Your parents dropped you off and you get to go off and be a kid. In the early ’80s, skating rinks were much more popular than now. That’s where high school kids would go to hang out, play pool, skate, smoke, drink a little underage. Some skating rinks are still around, but the crowd has changed. It’s much younger now.
Robert Hoffman, editor: In the film, Skateland as a place represents Ritchie’s holding on to his past, having nostalgia for it, not taking responsibility, and not being an adult. And now Skateland’s closing, and so he’s got to let go of his past.
A: Skateland closing is a metaphor for things changing. Times are changing, his life is changing….
Does the real Skateland still exist? I looked up the rink I went to as a kid, and it was torn down in 2003 to build condos.
A: Skateland in Longview, the building is still there, at least as of a year ago, but it was being sold, and it wasn’t operational. Longview’s a small town, so there’s no condos there yet.
One of the most essential aspects of the film was trying to get the era right, in terms of the music and the clothes. How did that all come together?
A: It’s not in-your-face ’80s. People kinda dress the same now as they did then in East Texas. The hair was actually really important, and the makeup. With period pieces, you’re going to spend a little more money and time to make sure you’re accurate. It was challenging at times.
I liked that it was authentic without being over the top. It wasn’t a punchline every time someone walked in and you got a load of their outfit.
R: There are movies that take place in other decades, where it seems to be that’s what the story’s about. When in fact, this film could take place twenty years from now and still have the same story.
A: But we love that changing time of the early ’80s: the women’s lib movement, the way the economy reflects what’s going on now, the MTV pop appeal exploding, the music…. We were big fans of John Hughes, and this is kind of an homage to him, to create something that felt like it could’ve been shot back then. And we also felt like there hadn’t been a throwback movie that takes place in the early ’80s that was done correctly, that felt real.
R: One of the things I enjoy about watching it is that it feels like it could’ve been made in the early ’80s, and now we’re just discovering it for the first time.
P: I think that was always Tony’s intentions: that it wouldn’t hit you over the head with its ’80s-ness. It would just feel like a lost film from the ’80s.