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Winter Wonders: a skater's first Christmas as a father and another's first big band gig

I've been spending a lot of time taking trips out to Rockford, spending time with my dudes Keire and Zack and their buddies. As winter sets in with its shadowless cloudy days and cold temperatures that make joints and tendons ache just getting out of bed, everyone is getting a chance to focus on other aspects of their lives off their boards.

Zack, who I filmed going to the hospital with his girlfriend to give birth to their son earlier this summer, has just spent his first Christmas as a dad this year. Him and his girlfriend have split up, and now he is navigating the scheduling and financial issues of split custody.

Zack with his son Elliot, spending time being a dad the day after Christmas.

Meanwhile, Keire has been playing more shows with his band, Sleeping Habits. He's also been putting in the hours at his new dishwashing job.

Keire getting a lot of love after killing it at one of his bands'  biggest shows yet.


He's able to help his mom with bills and start saving up to move to Chicago with his new job.

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Skateboarding is not a crime.

Keire had his hands up when he was pulled over.

But being black is. When I went to Rockford this past weekend, Keire told me a story about how one night, after leaving his work at Olympic Tavern where he is a dishwasher, he was pulled over on his bicycle by a police officer shortly after 12:30am. The officer, who got out of his cruiser with his gun already drawn, told him he was pulled over because he had a hood up. The officer proceeded to search Keire's backpack, where he found a laptop and grilled Keire about who he stole it from, making him log in to the computer to prove it was his. After half-an-hour, the officer let Keire go but told him to ride home with his hood down. Keire's ears were freezing cold when he finally got home.

Luckily we got to film a clip to get his mind off of the whole ordeal.

We also ran into some of his buddies at a new DIY spot in town.

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End of the Hiatus

I've taken a break from the Minding the Gap these past couple months to recoup some funds by working on the second season of a USA Network TV series called Sirens. Now that production on the show is coming to an end, Minding the Gap will be gearing back up.

I've just finished writing an application for the Tribeca Film Institute Documentary Fund, which included a 2,500 word treatment. Working in the somewhat insular worlds of narrative storytelling and skate videos for most of my filmmaking career, I never realized how much a treatment allows a project to be envisioned, to begin to take shape, to become palpable.

I think for a long time I was swimming in the dozens upon dozens of stories, sweat, and blood that so many skateboarders over the past couple of years from all over the country had shared with me. It's too easy to get lost in all of it--because their footage all speak toward this general idea of growing up with a fractured and broken home life. It was and still is tempting to include if not everyone then a piece of everyone in Minding the Gap.

I looked toward films like Beautiful Losers. Films by Harmony Korine. Richard Linklater's Slacker and Waking Life, where characters all come and go with smooth, casual connections to segue their appearance and disappearance. I wanted to justify including all of their stories.

And maybe because the Tribeca grant was looking for character-driven films or maybe because I became exhausted with drowning in the pools of so many people's lives, but my treatment has made the film much more about a single boy, who I used to see at the skatepark ripping it up, who was physically abused by his dad, who's father died when he was 14, who feels like he can't relate to his family, who is honest enough to work through his inner coming-of-age angst aloud to me for this project.

I spent a Saturday with him last weekend, catching him during a gorgeous Midwestern Autumn day. We filmed a skateboarding clip, did an interview, and documented a little bit of his home life, where his nephews and sister are staying temporarily right now.

Keire's hometown of Rockford, IL has a nickname: Forest City. It's breathtakingly beautiful in Autumn.

Dude's got hops.

I got to see Keire interact with his nephews and big sister for the first time. It was a real treat.

In a few weeks I'll be meeting with folks over at Kartemquin to see about partnering up with them. More to come. Thanks for the support. Stay youthful.

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Filling in aspects of a skateboarder's life: Keire Johnson

When you're doing a story about skateboarders growing up without fathers, often the flip-side is that you're doing a story about mother-son relations.

This week, I sat down with Keire's mother and asked her what it was like raising a skateboarder who didn't always get along with his father and who was hurting a lot after he died of a heart attack.

Keire's mom is mellow and easy-going in that Southern pace of life kind of way.

She admits that she wasn't around that much either, having to work all the time. She finds it hard to watch him skateboarding because she's worried that he'll get hurt. But when she watched some of his footage, she was surprised at how far he'd come.

Keire Johnson, a skateboarder whose story represents growing up feeling lost and confused, is the heart and soul of the film.

I don't know why it took so long to write this post about a very central character in the film. Perhaps I wanted to do justice to his story.

One step towards giving dimension and substance to what he's been through has been asking others who knew him when he was younger what they'd witnessed.

Zack, pictured here with his pregnant girlfriend Nina.

Zack, whose own beginnings as a soon-to-be father has got him thinking a lot about father-son relations, has provided a couch and hangout spot for Keire throughout the years. Zack remembers the day Keire's dad died. Keire walked into his house and immediately went to the fridge and poured a gigantic glass of vodka. Zack, who started living with a friend when he was sixteen because of a falling out with his parents, is continuing the tradition of friends lending a place to stay in a time of need.

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A Poster/Sticker by Illinois artist Chris Contesso

Chris Contesso, an Illinois skateboarder and visual artist, drew and colored this piece for the documentary. Give me a holler if you want a sticker. To see more of Chris's work: http://www.chriscontesso.com

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Chucky Berls

Anybody who knows Chucky will tell you he has a distinctive laugh--something like a hyena mixed with The Nanny.

This past Friday was one of those lush, tingly, breezy Chicago days. I did a hike with Chucky looking for the perfect spot for an interview. He talks about a fight at his stepmom's and father's house when he was seventeen and how it led to him not speaking with his dad for four years. He's told me this story three times now, but every time it becomes more vivid and powerful. 

This was his first time learning how to row with oars. By the time we headed back to the docks he was a pro; we were cruising at high-knot speed.

He talks to his dad now, but it was a slow process. He admits that he had a lot of growing up to do. But it was a fishing trip that he took with his dad a couple years ago that helped him to decide to move back to Illinois.

He's quick-footed.

After getting sunburnt out on the water, we headed to a spot he'd found nearby where he's living in Wheaton. We got the clip and ended the day on a high note. Not every day of shooting can be this productive, but we got it all in: interview, lifestyle b-roll, and skateboarding. Can't wait to catch up with Chucky down the road to see how things have progressed with his skating and his relationship with his dad.

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