Documentary Research: Skateistan and Afghanistans Girl Skaters - Kabul 2012

https://vimeo.com/15841377

https://vimeo.com/46337060

The short documentary "Skateistan" which we watched in one of our seminars, is very interesting with a view towards making our own short documentary. None of the interviews are shown, instead we hear the interviews and see a series of cutaways. In this case, this is more effective than showing the interviews as the cutaways succeed in telling the story by themselves, often referencing information about Afghanistani culture and how it has been affected by violence through images while the subject is simply discussing their skateboarding in order to tell the story through a juxtaposition.

While it may be useful, especially when cutting in and out of multiple subjects as we plan to in our documentary, to show the subjects faces, Skateistan is a fantastic example of how much of a story can be told through cutaways and how they can be as much the focus as the interviews.

However, having some previous knowledge of Afghanistans skater culture, I knew that it had the highest percentage of female skateboarders of anywhere in the world, and so was surprised that this was not directly addressed in the film. However, I found another short film called "Afghanistans Girl Skaters - Kabul 2012" which was a combination of footage of girl skateboarding and text describing the boom in female skaters. I found this particularly interesting as it presented something familiar in a way that was unfamiliar, as in the west there are very few girls who skateboard as well as very few Arab skateboarders. Also, typical western ignorance and the media we consume may lead someone with little knowledge of the culture to believe that few Afghan girls have the independence and freedom to do something such as skateboard. It was interesting to see conventional views challenged in this way and so for our documentary, as we should be dealing with religious figures, I think it would be interesting to find subjects who are somewhat different to what the typical perception of these faiths would be.