So I watched this. I think it was a mix of skateboard history, Tony Hawk documentary and a sales pitch for San Diego to give more funding for public skateparks.
The skateboard history part was mostly fine. It had some really good archive footage especially from the 70's, rampage ramp, all the Del Mar footage and J Grant Brittain's photos. But it also took a lot of liberties in the skateboarding timeline like the whole 80's skate scene was out of order/rushed, the 90's skateboard crash was only implied in a side note by Tony, all the street skateboarding footage was mixed through different eras etc. Also it was funny how Transworld was brought up as being the first mag in a way, as Thrasher wasn't mentioned at all except by Rawls by name (neither was Skateboarder). But the history part was alright otherwise.
Of course Tony being (probably) the most well known person from San Diego and the fact his production company made the film, a lot of focus was on him. And as a matter of fact, he was the only skateboarder mentioned by name in the whole documentary. which was weird. Of course there were name on the pictures, but no other San Diego skateboarder was mentioned. I think the writers felt they needed a bridge from Tony becoming successful to Tony Hawk foundation, so a lot of time was spent on X Games / 900 / the game.
And that brings to the weirdest part in the doc. It was somehow told or at least implied that it was Tony and the foundation who came up with the idea for free public skateparks. Of course Miki Vuckovich being also one of the main people in the documentary, a lot of focus was on the foundation and their work, but come on now. The rest of the documentary was focused on the public skateparks and that was ok in the PBS kinda way.
The interviewees were ok, except for Chris Cote, he was grating anytime he was on the screen imo.
If I was someone who had no knowledge of skateboarding beforehand, I think watching the film you'd get a good idea how skateboarding has evolved, so in that way it was alright. But if you are a skate history nerd, the doc doesn't offer that much new, except maybe for the 70's stuff.
But one thing is for sure: don't fucking use the Memory Screen J. song on your credits, that's just insulting. Yeah it was the Dino Jr. version, but I'm sure the person who picked it knew that it was used in the Alien Workshop video.
There's also this J Grant minidoc which is great:
https://video.kpbs.org/video/the-world-is-a-skatepark-photographer-j-grant-brittain-vzjmz7/