If you grew up in California in the ’80s, it wasn’t unusual to see gaggles of scraggly young dudes gracefully hopping over obstacles on their skateboards. In East Germany, however, the sight of Rollbrettfahrer teens kick-flipping all around Alexanderplatz was enough to make everyday squares spit out their schnitzel. Marten Persiel’s doc on the GDR’s street-skate scene combines vintage Super-8 footage, re-creations, cheeky asides (a lesson on how to do an ollie!) and middle-aged guys reminiscing about a mythical kid who allegedly introduced the sport to the country’s unwashed masses. It ain’t bad, though all that detritus detracts from a far more interesting history lesson on repression and rebellion that’s left on the periphery.
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