Greco's New Film “Glass Carousel”

[43]

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Even if it wasn't a homeless guy we were talking about, filming someone without their consent, being told to stop, and then continuing to do so is 100% antagonistic behavior. I am shocked that anyone would argue otherwise. Either way, I stand by it being a very trite artistic statement. It's been done to death and it isn't any sort of biting commentary on the status quo. And the fact that there is practically a library's worth of other examples of this within skateboarding media alone proves as such. This does nothing different other than put a fancy film filter over it.

[close]

you would think at this point in grecos career/life he would know better....anyway i enjoyed some of the skate footage

[close]

Yeah, you’d think but Jim seems kinda stuck on this current stage, and it’s getting boring. As usual some amazing skating, but this is easily the worst of the “Sober Trilogy”. Time to move on to the next Greco.

And yes, a professional landlord filming homeless people for content for his art is very uncomfortable.

“I’m looking to buy more property—to take all my earnings from skateboarding and buy as much property as possible. I do not want to be rich; I just want to live comfortably...going where I want, when I want and doing what I want without worries and without having to rely on skateboarding at a professional level forever to do so. I feel this is achievable by owning property”(Greco, 2016).

Holy shit, Greco has become Vincent Gallo:

“I own, like, $7 million worth of real estate that I don’t live in and I don’t rent it [out],” Gallo said in a 2004 interview with Howard Stern. “It’s sitting there, it’s hanging there. ... I’ve never lost a penny in my life.”

https://www.realtor.com/news/celebrity-real-estate/vincent-gallo-selling-la-condo.amp/

[johnes]

Just watched this and not gonna lie, I want to go skate right now.
Jim must actually still love skating.

[themeangreen]

Very solid, nice to see Greco still has it in him.

[GardenSkater77]

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It’s not tasteless y’all. It’s worse to be skating spots like that and completely ignore the surroundings as if no one is suffering right now; literally the entire planet is fucked. It’s like a gross whitewash/visual gentrification to pretend people aren’t camped out there smoking rock in the middle of the day when that’s the stone cold reality. Skateboarding is a part of street culture, just like graffiti, and yes homelessness. Street skating videos are just that, a documentation of street culture. He’s providing visibility to the social underbelly everyone chooses to disregard like trash, and in turn sparking a conversation about how fucked it all is. It’s good that these images upset you, they should be upsetting, but it’s shortsighted to say it’s tasteless or indefensible. I also want to be explicitly clear that it is extremely easy to completely exploit homelessness in skate videos and it happens regularly, but this ain’t it. Go scold GX for vollies instead.

[close]

Well okay, here's my response. Respectfully Matt, I don't see street skating (videos) as a documentation of street culture - I see them as a documentation of skateboarding. Yes, skating is part of the streets, it's part of the underground, but that doesn't mean we need to showcase every single other part of what happens in the streets.

And why do we watch skate vids? We watch them for entertainment. To get excited, stoked on skating. To me, it's incongruous to add lots of footage of those less fortunate because I don't believe that a skate video is a compatible medium to spark conversation about the wounded underbelly of a society, unless a clear point is made from the beginning of the video that that is in fact the intended point. And lots of videos do that properly. That's why I'm uncomfortable with the footage - not because I turn my head at the sight of a homeless person.

If we don't have that understanding of what we're watching from the beginning, then it smacks of immaturity and wanting to use footage of the homeless because it's "entertaining." Honestly it reminds me of a small local video I watched many years back where the kids in the video were filming a man with a mental illness for fun, and even though he told them to stop, they continued to film while giggling. Not too far removed.

Also, I'm not against critiquing other videos for their at-times gratuitous footage of the homeless. I wasn't totally comfortable with Gerwer's instagram account years back either, for example. Doesn't mean I can't enjoy other output from GX or Sabotage or whomever, I'll enjoy watching the skating, but yeah - it does turn me off from being really stoked on them. That's how I feel.

And remember in Guy Mariano's Epicly Later'd when O'Dell was filming the homeless in LA as he was driving by in his car, and a guy literally screamed at him "Don't be filming me motherfucker?" Do you think homeless people appreciate being filmed? Like they want the nadir of their existence recorded and put on display? Do you think that man thought for a second that his image and situation was going to be used for a greater purpose and that it was all right? It's not as one-sided as some make it seem.

I think this is very well said, but I also think Matt fell into a trap of trying to defend the filming a homeless person smoking crack for no other reason than ‘street life’. The only thing I will say is that Jim was alone (minus the cameraman) and therefore vulnerable. Filming the homeless and garbage made me feel like Jim could be hurt. This feeling could have achieved with quicker shots of the people in the plaza. We were basically made to stare for 10 sec at a homeless person smoking Crack and staring is rude.

My question to the group is, has anyone ever watched a movie or a program on homelessness that did not have an element of exploitation? It’s hard because the subjects are vulnerable to begin with so can they really agree to participating?

My feeling here is this was an old school style skate video like Video Days and I enjoy all of Jim’s films.

[Jerrys Kid]

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It’s not tasteless y’all. It’s worse to be skating spots like that and completely ignore the surroundings as if no one is suffering right now; literally the entire planet is fucked. It’s like a gross whitewash/visual gentrification to pretend people aren’t camped out there smoking rock in the middle of the day when that’s the stone cold reality. Skateboarding is a part of street culture, just like graffiti, and yes homelessness. Street skating videos are just that, a documentation of street culture. He’s providing visibility to the social underbelly everyone chooses to disregard like trash, and in turn sparking a conversation about how fucked it all is. It’s good that these images upset you, they should be upsetting, but it’s shortsighted to say it’s tasteless or indefensible. I also want to be explicitly clear that it is extremely easy to completely exploit homelessness in skate videos and it happens regularly, but this ain’t it. Go scold GX for vollies instead.

[close]

Well okay, here's my response. Respectfully Matt, I don't see street skating (videos) as a documentation of street culture - I see them as a documentation of skateboarding. Yes, skating is part of the streets, it's part of the underground, but that doesn't mean we need to showcase every single other part of what happens in the streets.

And why do we watch skate vids? We watch them for entertainment. To get excited, stoked on skating. To me, it's incongruous to add lots of footage of those less fortunate because I don't believe that a skate video is a compatible medium to spark conversation about the wounded underbelly of a society, unless a clear point is made from the beginning of the video that that is in fact the intended point. And lots of videos do that properly. That's why I'm uncomfortable with the footage - not because I turn my head at the sight of a homeless person.

If we don't have that understanding of what we're watching from the beginning, then it smacks of immaturity and wanting to use footage of the homeless because it's "entertaining." Honestly it reminds me of a small local video I watched many years back where the kids in the video were filming a man with a mental illness for fun, and even though he told them to stop, they continued to film while giggling. Not too far removed.

Also, I'm not against critiquing other videos for their at-times gratuitous footage of the homeless. I wasn't totally comfortable with Gerwer's instagram account years back either, for example. Doesn't mean I can't enjoy other output from GX or Sabotage or whomever, I'll enjoy watching the skating, but yeah - it does turn me off from being really stoked on them. That's how I feel.

And remember in Guy Mariano's Epicly Later'd when O'Dell was filming the homeless in LA as he was driving by in his car, and a guy literally screamed at him "Don't be filming me motherfucker?" Do you think homeless people appreciate being filmed? Like they want the nadir of their existence recorded and put on display? Do you think that man thought for a second that his image and situation was going to be used for a greater purpose and that it was all right? It's not as one-sided as some make it seem.

[close]

I think this is very well said, but I also think Matt fell into a trap of trying to defend the filming a homeless person smoking crack for no other reason than ‘street life’. The only thing I will say is that Jim was alone (minus the cameraman) and therefore vulnerable. Filming the homeless and garbage made me feel like Jim could be hurt. This feeling could have achieved with quicker shots of the people in the plaza. We were basically made to stare for 10 sec at a homeless person smoking Crack and staring is rude.

My question to the group is, has anyone ever watched a movie or a program on homelessness that did not have an element of exploitation? It’s hard because the subjects are vulnerable to begin with so can they really agree to participating?

My feeling here is this was an old school style skate video like Video Days and I enjoy all of Jim’s films.

I kind of thought the film "Dark Days" (which is on youtube somewhere) did it respectfully to share the stories of people who build makeshift houses in the subway tunnels while capturing the living conditions that they were able to adapt to.

That said, I am all for documenting the conditions and elements in the surrounding area when trying to get a trick, but I feel like just filming homeless people for the sake of b-roll is completely exploitative. Especially if you are a $2.1 Billion dollar company trying to make teenagers think you haven't lost your edge to the hypebeasts.

[ilovegay]

In Greco’s defense, it is almost impossible to film skateboarding in downtown Los Angeles without getting homeless people in the shot.

[codymacfan]

In Greco’s defense, it is almost impossible to film skateboarding in downtown Los Angeles without getting homeless people in the shot.

I live here bro this is not a lie haha. One of the reasons I’m tired of skating alone around here. Homeless are everywhere, even empty parking lots I’m just trying to do flat ground at. I feel bad disturbing them.

I appreciated this film. My friend and I were at this spot over the summer and saw Greco ourselves. This area was always a big homeless hangout. Pandemic just made it worse. This is reality. And he still fucking ripped.

[skatingisntspecialstupid]

As a Greco fan I loved watching the skating in this. Really good stuff.

They certainly captured a sense of tension. But it felt like if anything happened to Jim or the filmer it would’ve been their own damn fault. It is a picture of what it’s like right now though. I’ve definitely moved on from a spot after feeling like I’m bugging some people that just want a quiet place to smoke crack or whatever. But they stayed and skated and filmed, so good for them I guess.

Jobs Never was my favorite. Sad Greco dragging the bench and slamming, skating an apartment after some morose lounging with his girl, then meeting up with his fashionable buddies for an evening skate really made me smile.

[j....soy.....]

If there were homeless people in the shot.....id have no problem....that's not the case though....

C'mon skaters...have you ever been trying to skate and some normie starts filming you?  Or just watching you waiting for you to take a slam?  Fuck off.....right?

[pbj]

My friend and I were at this spot over the summer and saw Greco ourselves. This area was always a big homeless hangout. Pandemic just made it worse. This is reality. And he still fucking ripped.

went there the other day, it is not looking pretty 9 months into the pandemic.

[RoaryMcTwang]

If there were homeless people in the shot.....id have no problem....that's not the case though....

C'mon skaters...have you ever been trying to skate and some normie starts filming you?  Or just watching you waiting for you to take a slam?  Fuck off.....right?

This.

I agree that the issue of deciding what's exploitation and what is not can be a tricky one, but I can't help but feel that the idea that skateboarding somehow necessarily and organically belongs in the middle of all this misery that is 'the streets' in a place like that spot is somewhat phony. (This is not necessarily the case in any situation of course: when skaters actually spend much of their life at a spot as was the case with Love or EMB, it's obviously different). But as far as I can see most skaters live in circumstances stable enough to buy relatively expensive equipment, shoes etc to be able to skate and go (pros: drive) to spots because there is stuff that can be skated there, not because they have no other place to go.

And if all this is supposed to be essentially metaphorical (and the branding of it as 'cinematic art' seems to me to indicate that it is) - the ex-addict Greco skating through the debris that was once his life, too, now passing through these streets an estranged yet still familiar face, gaunt and prematurely lined with his own experience in them, his mood hovering between taciturn endurance and nostalgic reverie - then the shots of actual homeless people are used precisely as a means to the end of creating that metaphor.   

That said, I still liked it a lot, but I think it would have been enough to have one or two of the homeless people randomly walking by or sitting in the background during his lines.

[geneparmesan]

Cassavetes Greco is in his window and it is a glorious thing.

By the way, when you film a person (homeless or not) without their consent and show their face as they engage in addiction related activities and include that in your arty skate film to convey whatever it is you're conveying, that is exploitative. People deserve a certain amount of dignity, and no broll requirements supersede that. 

Anyway, his 180s and blunts are sick

[cosmicgypsies]

remember when strobeck had that one guy in cherry knowingly being filmed smoking drugs out of a pipe and everyone called it bullshit and hated on it, greco throws someone in unknowingly being filmed smoking drugs out of a pipe and people are giving it a pass because it shows the spot/what goes on there?

[Kombuch-A-Holic]

I really enjoyed this like I do with all Greco's stuff. That line he does starting with the back 3 was awesome. Seeing the homeless/users made me sad. But not in a "Wtf why are they filming them!" way more along the lines of "Damn that shits really real for some people out there still". I'm not exposed to much of that anymore so Its easy to forget about over the years.  Several different perspectives. Hell I made what I thought was a joke on here talking about shopping on a corner gas station  and someone said I was food shaming. I wasn't.. Never even looked at it that way. It did make me aware that some people might not have the options that you or I have. That made me sad. So I can hate on the b-roll footy that much. I've seen a lot worse.

[NoComply180]

As a Greco fan I loved watching the skating in this. Really good stuff.

They certainly captured a sense of tension. But it felt like if anything happened to Jim or the filmer it would’ve been their own damn fault. It is a picture of what it’s like right now though. I’ve definitely moved on from a spot after feeling like I’m bugging some people that just want a quiet place to smoke crack or whatever. But they stayed and skated and filmed, so good for them I guess.

Jobs Never was my favorite. Sad Greco dragging the bench and slamming, skating an apartment after some morose lounging with his girl, then meeting up with his fashionable buddies for an evening skate really made me smile.

I dunno man I don’t think it’s unreasonable to expect that if you’re smoking crack in public other people might be doing other things around you.


His skating was incredibly enjoyable in this, king of back 3’s for sure

[RichardBarkley]

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It’s not tasteless y’all. It’s worse to be skating spots like that and completely ignore the surroundings as if no one is suffering right now; literally the entire planet is fucked. It’s like a gross whitewash/visual gentrification to pretend people aren’t camped out there smoking rock in the middle of the day when that’s the stone cold reality. Skateboarding is a part of street culture, just like graffiti, and yes homelessness. Street skating videos are just that, a documentation of street culture. He’s providing visibility to the social underbelly everyone chooses to disregard like trash, and in turn sparking a conversation about how fucked it all is. It’s good that these images upset you, they should be upsetting, but it’s shortsighted to say it’s tasteless or indefensible. I also want to be explicitly clear that it is extremely easy to completely exploit homelessness in skate videos and it happens regularly, but this ain’t it. Go scold GX for vollies instead.

[close]

Yes, it is.

[close]

How?

[close]

Better question: how is it not?

[close]

I literally answered that in the post you quoted. So better question, dont deflect and explain how this is exploitative. And yes I’m aware we have had this exact debate already years ago and you took an L. People do it all the time in videos but this is not an example of it.

[close]

You literally did not. You just explained why you think it's so filming homelessness is so integral for a skate video, as if there's no other way to convey "the world is fucked and some people have it rough" than putting a human being's lowest moments on blast without their consent, then you said it's bad when some videos do it poorly, and then said this isn't it. You didn't explain what makes Jim Greco's video so overwhelmingly different, nor did you explain how these shots are not exploitative of the people being filmed.

Now, please explain why the exploitation of people without homes and people dealing with addiction is good when Jim Greco does it in this video, but why others who exploit these people with more or less the same tactics in other videos is bad. While you're at it, please explain what the overarching "message" of this video is that couldn't be properly conveyed without individual, identifying shots of homeless people shot without their consent.

I remember our conversation in the past and while I don't remember an outcome (because I'm not a nine year old who qualifies discussions as "Ws" or "Ls"), I see you certainly still think of yourself as the smartest person in the room at all times.

Edit: while we're at it, feel free to respond to @pizzafliptofakie's point as well.

[close]

I absolutely don't think it's integral to film homeless people for a skate video and never said that. I have continually reiterated that most people do this very poorly but that does not mean that every single instance is shitty as you seem to think. There are numerous positive (as well as negative) examples of interacting with street people in almost every Sabotage and GX video for instance. Being out on the street and filming your surroundings and the general culture of the street isn't inherently exploitative. It's good it makes you uncomfortable, it should.

I am definitely not the smartest guy in the room but since you need someone to hold your hand through our pal Jimmy's oeuvre: in his fourth film well known recovering addict Jim Greco is skating a now abandoned mall due to the effects of a global pandemic and the failure of capitalism. Like his other flicks, the area he is skating is utterly fucking desolate coupled with the theme of addiction. I don't live in LA but I'd wager a guess since its a fucking mall on Main St in downtown surrounded by large buildings wheres CEO's commute to work in helicopters, this was once a bustling mecca of capital, but now its utterly overrun by homeless people, trash, addiction, mental health issues, disease, and likely more--he is skating a single spot and giving us a glimpse into the reality of that space, which is fucking BLEAK. Everything about this film is extremely jarring and in stark contrast what life in LA is presented to us through other forms of culture. It's far more offensive to not include that, it would whitewash the reality of existing in LA in 2020; a straight up visual gentrification. This is a skate video (documentary, really) about a specific spot in a very specific time and he's showing us what it looks like, which is important. Just the fact that I live in the woods of Massachusetts but have now spent over an hour watching and writing about homelessness on a skate forum is proving my point--he's sparking dialogue about how harsh reality is right now which is not something to be ignored. I'm not trying to be a smartass but it's also shallow/naive when people think every instance of documented homelessness in a skate video is negative, and also annoying to have to reiterate these same points years later.

[close]

Congrats, you didn't address any the points raised, but at least you didn't invoke Ocean Howell talking about coexisting with homeless people in these spaces as if coexisting and filming are the same thing. That's a start, I guess.

Also, many thanks for explaining for me that the groundbreaking fucking messages of this video film are "Los Angeles is vapid" and "2020 is bad." Can't believe this is the first time they've been explored in depth, I'm sure the dude smoking crack and the man visibly agitated at being filmed (among others) are thrilled to have their images shared in such revolutionary work.

[close]

Expert level cop out/deflection, sincerely impressed. Have a gnar heckler.

Why don't you just take his point on board and then answer his question @heckler ?

You are the contrarian in chief on here and never miss an opportunity to baste someone.

Why don't you stop deflecting and give your opinion or give in.

[Cool Ceith]

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If there were homeless people in the shot.....id have no problem....that's not the case though....

C'mon skaters...have you ever been trying to skate and some normie starts filming you?  Or just watching you waiting for you to take a slam?  Fuck off.....right?

[close]

This.

I agree that the issue of deciding what's exploitation and what is not can be a tricky one, but I can't help but feel that the idea that skateboarding somehow necessarily and organically belongs in the middle of all this misery that is 'the streets' in a place like that spot is somewhat phony. (This is not necessarily the case in any situation of course: when skaters actually spend much of their life at a spot as was the case with Love or EMB, it's obviously different). But as far as I can see most skaters live in circumstances stable enough to buy relatively expensive equipment, shoes etc to be able to skate and go (pros: drive) to spots because there is stuff that can be skated there, not because they have no other place to go.

And if all this is supposed to be essentially metaphorical (and the branding of it as 'cinematic art' seems to me to indicate that it is) - the ex-addict Greco skating through the debris that was once his life, too, now passing through these streets an estranged yet still familiar face, gaunt and prematurely lined with his own experience in them, his mood hovering between taciturn endurance and nostalgic reverie - then the shots of actual homeless people are used precisely as a means to the end of creating that metaphor.   

That said, I still liked it a lot, but I think it would have been enough to have one or two of the homeless people randomly walking by or sitting in the background during his lines.

Roary, you should review skate videos. On point.

[rawbertson.]

i dont think that was all done in 1 day because the cars parked were diffferent in almost every shot. but i bet these tricks were all go to for him + he did them all already before he even filmed them. probably was over hte course of 2-3 days id guess.

its funny cause everyone is like man that spot looks so hard to skate. spot looks amazing to me i would kill for something like that. i had baiscally the equivalent of just 1 of those brick banks , and mine was a lot rougher than that, and i skated it for years until it got bulldozed

[coyote2425]

Greco's still got it.

And I still don't have the patience for him.

[skatingisntspecialstupid]

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As a Greco fan I loved watching the skating in this. Really good stuff.

They certainly captured a sense of tension. But it felt like if anything happened to Jim or the filmer it would’ve been their own damn fault. It is a picture of what it’s like right now though. I’ve definitely moved on from a spot after feeling like I’m bugging some people that just want a quiet place to smoke crack or whatever. But they stayed and skated and filmed, so good for them I guess.

Jobs Never was my favorite. Sad Greco dragging the bench and slamming, skating an apartment after some morose lounging with his girl, then meeting up with his fashionable buddies for an evening skate really made me smile.

[close]

I dunno man I don’t think it’s unreasonable to expect that if you’re smoking crack in public other people might be doing other things around you.


His skating was incredibly enjoyable in this, king of back 3’s for sure

This is true, but it also stands to reason that if you’re sticking a camera in people’s faces in a park or plaza you might get into some friction, especially if they’re tweaking.

At the end of the day skateboarders play in the streets. It’s fake as hell to act like we have some special POV on real street shit - the sad and ugly stuff that we put in videos to be edgy before smoking blunts with the homies.

[43]

Greco is the most important auteur in skating today.

With respect to the homeless voyeurism, in this context it serves as showing how gnarly the spot is. Avoiding fights and getting jumped is equivalent to a steep drop-off or heavy traffic.

[Uncle Flea]

That was outstanding.

[Leyzee Emcea]

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If there were homeless people in the shot.....id have no problem....that's not the case though....

C'mon skaters...have you ever been trying to skate and some normie starts filming you?  Or just watching you waiting for you to take a slam?  Fuck off.....right?

[close]

This.

I agree that the issue of deciding what's exploitation and what is not can be a tricky one, but I can't help but feel that the idea that skateboarding somehow necessarily and organically belongs in the middle of all this misery that is 'the streets' in a place like that spot is somewhat phony. (This is not necessarily the case in any situation of course: when skaters actually spend much of their life at a spot as was the case with Love or EMB, it's obviously different). But as far as I can see most skaters live in circumstances stable enough to buy relatively expensive equipment, shoes etc to be able to skate and go (pros: drive) to spots because there is stuff that can be skated there, not because they have no other place to go.

And if all this is supposed to be essentially metaphorical (and the branding of it as 'cinematic art' seems to me to indicate that it is) - the ex-addict Greco skating through the debris that was once his life, too, now passing through these streets an estranged yet still familiar face, gaunt and prematurely lined with his own experience in them, his mood hovering between taciturn endurance and nostalgic reverie - then the shots of actual homeless people are used precisely as a means to the end of creating that metaphor.   

That said, I still liked it a lot, but I think it would have been enough to have one or two of the homeless people randomly walking by or sitting in the background during his lines.

[close]

Roary, you should review skate videos. On point.

Got diagnozed with ADHD a month ago after 28 years of trying to keep coherent/functional trains of thoughts. Now with therapy & meds, being able to read/assess multiple perspectives and opinions that are laid out, pertinent and serve to share one's understanding of any given subject/debate is everything. None of that "well I'm obviously right bc ..." bs so that was very proper indeed @RoaryMcTwang

It's hard to ignore that an ex addict's view on the "real world" can be pretty unusual, on or off the streets. I agree that quick surrounding shots would've been enough to make his point. Skating wise, Greco sure didn't disappoint. 42yo fs blunt on a legit rugged street spot is fucking admirable.

[Abyss1]

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If there were homeless people in the shot.....id have no problem....that's not the case though....

C'mon skaters...have you ever been trying to skate and some normie starts filming you?  Or just watching you waiting for you to take a slam?  Fuck off.....right?

[close]

This.

I agree that the issue of deciding what's exploitation and what is not can be a tricky one, but I can't help but feel that the idea that skateboarding somehow necessarily and organically belongs in the middle of all this misery that is 'the streets' in a place like that spot is somewhat phony. (This is not necessarily the case in any situation of course: when skaters actually spend much of their life at a spot as was the case with Love or EMB, it's obviously different). But as far as I can see most skaters live in circumstances stable enough to buy relatively expensive equipment, shoes etc to be able to skate and go (pros: drive) to spots because there is stuff that can be skated there, not because they have no other place to go.

And if all this is supposed to be essentially metaphorical (and the branding of it as 'cinematic art' seems to me to indicate that it is) - the ex-addict Greco skating through the debris that was once his life, too, now passing through these streets an estranged yet still familiar face, gaunt and prematurely lined with his own experience in them, his mood hovering between taciturn endurance and nostalgic reverie - then the shots of actual homeless people are used precisely as a means to the end of creating that metaphor.   

That said, I still liked it a lot, but I think it would have been enough to have one or two of the homeless people randomly walking by or sitting in the background during his lines.

[close]

Roary, you should review skate videos. On point.

The Miles Davis also, who himself stuggles with Heroine like Greco, now that im an old dude I can see why he choose the music

[funeral_tuxedo]

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If there were homeless people in the shot.....id have no problem....that's not the case though....

C'mon skaters...have you ever been trying to skate and some normie starts filming you?  Or just watching you waiting for you to take a slam?  Fuck off.....right?

[close]

This.

I agree that the issue of deciding what's exploitation and what is not can be a tricky one, but I can't help but feel that the idea that skateboarding somehow necessarily and organically belongs in the middle of all this misery that is 'the streets' in a place like that spot is somewhat phony. (This is not necessarily the case in any situation of course: when skaters actually spend much of their life at a spot as was the case with Love or EMB, it's obviously different). But as far as I can see most skaters live in circumstances stable enough to buy relatively expensive equipment, shoes etc to be able to skate and go (pros: drive) to spots because there is stuff that can be skated there, not because they have no other place to go.

And if all this is supposed to be essentially metaphorical (and the branding of it as 'cinematic art' seems to me to indicate that it is) - the ex-addict Greco skating through the debris that was once his life, too, now passing through these streets an estranged yet still familiar face, gaunt and prematurely lined with his own experience in them, his mood hovering between taciturn endurance and nostalgic reverie - then the shots of actual homeless people are used precisely as a means to the end of creating that metaphor.   

That said, I still liked it a lot, but I think it would have been enough to have one or two of the homeless people randomly walking by or sitting in the background during his lines.

@RoaryMcTwang thanks for eloquently and cohesively explaining it to me. I wrote before that I saw the incorporation of the marginalized people in the film as visceral components of the environment and it added so much tension-like three extra pushes away kind of tension, but I agree that it could've been done differently and I get why it would upset anyone.

[Roger Mexico]

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If there were homeless people in the shot.....id have no problem....that's not the case though....

C'mon skaters...have you ever been trying to skate and some normie starts filming you?  Or just watching you waiting for you to take a slam?  Fuck off.....right?

[close]

This.

I agree that the issue of deciding what's exploitation and what is not can be a tricky one, but I can't help but feel that the idea that skateboarding somehow necessarily and organically belongs in the middle of all this misery that is 'the streets' in a place like that spot is somewhat phony. (This is not necessarily the case in any situation of course: when skaters actually spend much of their life at a spot as was the case with Love or EMB, it's obviously different). But as far as I can see most skaters live in circumstances stable enough to buy relatively expensive equipment, shoes etc to be able to skate and go (pros: drive) to spots because there is stuff that can be skated there, not because they have no other place to go.

And if all this is supposed to be essentially metaphorical (and the branding of it as 'cinematic art' seems to me to indicate that it is) - the ex-addict Greco skating through the debris that was once his life, too, now passing through these streets an estranged yet still familiar face, gaunt and prematurely lined with his own experience in them, his mood hovering between taciturn endurance and nostalgic reverie - then the shots of actual homeless people are used precisely as a means to the end of creating that metaphor.   

That said, I still liked it a lot, but I think it would have been enough to have one or two of the homeless people randomly walking by or sitting in the background during his lines.

This pretty much summed up my feelings better than I could. Thanks. There were more than enough people around in the background to supply the metaphor without needing to antagonize anyone.

That said. I've really enjoyed Greco's recent films. Are they, maybe, a little pretentious with regard to their presentation? Sure. But even that pretension feels authentically Greco. And, at this point in my life, I enjoy this version of Greco's skating than the after the black hammers.

[Lloyd Braun]

That spots amazing wow literally has everything.

[flempa1one]

i dont think that was all done in 1 day because the cars parked were diffferent in almost every shot. but i bet these tricks were all go to for him + he did them all already before he even filmed them. probably was over hte course of 2-3 days id guess.

its funny cause everyone is like man that spot looks so hard to skate. spot looks amazing to me i would kill for something like that. i had baiscally the equivalent of just 1 of those brick banks , and mine was a lot rougher than that, and i skated it for years until it got bulldozed

I can bet money he worked for a lot of those clips!

[Tear Up a Trick]

A little late to the party, but have enjoyed reading these comments.  A couple thoughts:

Video parts that provoke this much discussion and debate are gifts.  At least Greco does not bore us.

The part is easily one of the best of the year in my opinion.  Loved every second of it.  Love all of his last few projects.

And finally, if people are inspired by this part to do something to help charities / homeless outreach centers

[j....soy.....]

It's something that has just been going on in skate videos for awhile that's coming to light now....the vid would have been fine on its own or definitely be a bit less intrusive to the people is all....

Not like I've never taken a photo of some wild shit either, but I don't do it anymore.....

Skaters always feel misunderstood at how the outside world sees them....how about these people who clearly have less than we do?