Almost as if molding clay, Crystal Moselle’s subjects start as raw materials that when shaped and formed can become something larger, not only in volume but impact. Working with material we often think about how the material itself tells us what it wants to be and Moselle’s documentary format lends well to this.
_The Wolfpack_ her debut documentary she highlighted the Angulo siblings, whom found fame living in Manhattan’s Lower East Side, forbidden to leave they learned about the world by watching over 5,000 movies. In 2018 her follow up feature, Skate Kitchen follows the Lower East side skate crew of the same name. The films draw their authenticity from Moselle’s immersion into to these people’s world.
Her work primarily draws on ideas of exclusion vs. inclusion. Where _Wolfpack_ draws on the exclusion of reality, _Skate Kitchen_ hits on the exclusion of women in male-dominated landscapes down to our society’s lowest levels and in the everyday. Yet, these stories aren't sob stories, in fact anything but. They showcase the importance of finding your tribe and how doing so can help us find ourselves.
“Camille, an introverted teenage skateboarder (newcomer Rachelle Vinberg) from Long Island, meets and befriends an all-girl, New York City-based skateboarding crew called Skate Kitchen. She falls in with the in-crowd, has a falling-out with her mother, and falls for a mysterious skateboarder guy (Jaden Smith), but a relationship with him proves to be trickier to navigate than a kickflip.”
_Skate Kitchen_ is in select theaters now!
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