Skatekeet

“You only have eyes for your skateboard,” Keet’s girlfriends always say when the conversation turns to romance. And it’s true, skating is what this tough 10-year-old likes best of all. This is beautifully illustrated for us in a slow-motion shot that zooms in on her face, pure enjoyment plastered all over it, the wind in her hair, the sun on her skin. Every now and then she drops out of the frame to push off and accelerate. In the meantime, we hear her voice: she says that she gets teased a lot by other girls for acting like a boy. She tries to ignore them as much as possible.

Skatekeet follows her in skate parks, on a half-pipe, being chased away from chic office buildings or roaming around deserted, graffiti-covered neighborhoods. Skating is her thing—that much is clear. She also tries to connect with other skaters, but being a girl doesn’t make this easy. Nevertheless, the levelheaded and talented Keet is able to make her way in the boy-dominated world of skating, looking for her place.