SPIRIT QUEST
Theatrical cut, with intermission
dir. Colin Read, 2016
USA. 98 min.
In English.
SATURDAY, APRIL 8 – 7:30 PM
FRIDAY, APRIL 14 – 7 PM, w/ Colin Read and Connor Kammerer (This event is $10)
FRIDAY, APRIL 14 – 9:30 PM, w/ Colin Read and Connor Kammerer (This event is $10)
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 19 – 7:30 PM
SPECIAL EVENT TICKETS (FRIDAY, APRIL 14)
- “A journey through nature, time, and space.”
At its core the skate video is a marketing tool, the purpose of which is to increase sales of the industry’s hard and soft goods. Goods like skateboard decks, wheels, shoes, clothing, etc. The videos are usually produced and distributed by the companies who make these goods. They have a team of skateboarders who act as brand ambassadors, and are documented using the product they intend to sell. For this reason, Spectacle screening a skateboard video is rather unusual. In fact, up until now there had been only one to grace the space in the last 12 years, Alien Workshop’s incredible first audio/visual experience: MEMORY SCREEN. It should come as no surprise that the next video to appear would have to be of an artistic merit equal to or greater than the previous. Enter Colin Read’s SPIRIT QUEST, a video that a collective of film obsessives and video editors can only look at in awe. And unlike your usual branded marketing pieces, SPIRIT QUEST exists in a separate world: the independent skate video. The underground. Where the only products being sold are the video itself, and pure unadulterated stoke—which makes it all the more impressive.
With production spanning 4 years, and locations across multiple continents, SPIRIT QUEST is a manic feast of video editing. Undulating between skateboard action and archival animal documentary footage, weaving together the physical movements of both animal and skateboarder, and finding an abundance of similarities and metaphors between the two. Each chapter of the video references a different part of the animal and spirit kingdoms, correlating it with an aspect of skating or video making. Like the independently mobile eyes of a chameleon becoming two side-by-side VX1000 cameras, or bathing monkeys in a hot spring transforming into skaters in a New York City public fountain. Features an all-star cast including Quim Cardona, Bobby Worrest, Vincent Touzery, Taylor Nawrocki, Connor Kammerer, Hiroki Muraoka, and many more.
We acknowledge that while SPIRIT QUEST has a loyal following amongst practitioners, we hope to see many non-skaters in attendance, as this video has plenty to offer any audience.
Special thanks to Colin Read.