Photo: Nachito Pistola
From Stacy Peralta and Tony Alva, original members of the Z-boys in the ’70s, to the kids depicted in Larry Clark’s 2005 film Wassup Rockers, it’s pretty well-established at this point that Latinos and skating subculture have a long-standing relationship in the U.S. But the skating scene is also alive and well all over Latin America. In 2010, Bolivian filmmaker Alfredo Coloma made a documentary called Skate La Paz, about the skating scene in a place you might not think to look for it: La Paz, Bolivia.
The trailer looked raw and intriguing, but aside from a low key premiere in London, it’s hard to know what became of the movie, which receded into obscurity. (If anyone has any tips, holler at us!)
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But now, through a documentary produced by Levi’s Skateboarding, we get another glimpse into the skating scene in Bolivia.
In the full-length documentary below, the similarly titled Skateboarding in La Paz, Bolivian skater Milton Arellano and German crew called endboss projects join forces (along with hundreds of skateboarders and builders from all over the world) to create a public skatepark in a city three miles up in the sky. This project is part of a larger Levi’s campaign that has teamed the brand up with skate collectives in impoverished communities around the globe, giving them the tools, resources, and collaborators to build awesome skateparks.
Check out the full-length documentary, directed by Simon Weyhe, below:
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