Barely Dead
Encyclopedia
Barely Dead is a video documentary
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...

 about the underground culture of Rollerblading
Inline skating
Inline skating is a recreational sport practiced widely internationally. Inline skates typically have 2 to 5 polyurethane wheels, arranged in a single line. The in-line design allows for greater speed than roller skates and better maneuverability...

.

Credited are: Azikiwee Anderson, Julian Bah, Erik Bailey, Michael "Gumby" Braud, Alex Broskow, Cameron Card, Shane Coburn, Jess Dyrenforth, Arlo Eisenberg
Arlo Eisenberg
Arlo Eisenberg is an aggressive inline skater who pioneered street skating. He is considered by many to be an important innovator of the aggressive skating industry.-Biography:...

, Jon Elliot, Chris Farmer, Rob Guerrero, Chris Haffey, Chiaki Ito, Jon Julio, Ramelle Knight, Dave Kollash, Pat Lennon, Montre Livingston, Franky Morales, Jeromy Morris, Mike Opalek, Dre Powel, Brian Shima
Brian Shima
Brian Matthew Isoa Shima is a professional inline skater.Came to fame in the early rollerblading community because of his unique style on skates and winning many competitions. He also holds the record for the most pro skates held by any person...

, Oli Short, David Sizemore and Jeff Stockwell.

The artwork on the packaging was done by Andrew Tunney.

Production

The documentary was produced by Misled Media in 2006. Misled Media also made Black Market (2005), another documentary about rollerblading (not to be confused with the 2007 documentary about the illegal trade in wildlife and associated products). Both videos were directed by Doug Urquhart. The film was shot on Super16mm motion picture film and then transferred to video.



Rollerblading was originally known as aggressive inline skating
Inline skating
Inline skating is a recreational sport practiced widely internationally. Inline skates typically have 2 to 5 polyurethane wheels, arranged in a single line. The in-line design allows for greater speed than roller skates and better maneuverability...

. This documentary, contains a short history of the inline skate, the rollerskate and the skateboard. It also covers the use of the inline skate as a training tool and the boom of companies like Senate. For the rest the documentary is a compilation of a lot of skating footage and chronicles skating from the time it became popular in the nineties to around 2005. Rollerblading had a tremendous impact as a result of the exposure of the X games
X Games
The X Games is a commercial annual sports event, controlled and arranged by US sports broadcaster ESPN, which focuses on action sports. The inaugural X Games was held in the summer of 1995 in Rhode Island....

. The sport had to fight for a place between BMX
BMX
Bicycle motocross or BMX refers to the sport in which the main goal is extreme racing on bicycles in motocross style on tracks with inline start and expressive obstacles, and it is also the term that refers to the bicycle itself that is designed for dirt and motocross cycling.- History :BMX started...

 (which was dwindling at that time) and skateboarding
Skateboarding
Skateboarding is an action sport which involves riding and performing tricks using a skateboard.Skateboarding can be a recreational activity, an art form, a job, or a method of transportation. Skateboarding has been shaped and influenced by many skateboarders throughout the years. A 2002 report...

. The popularity of rollerblading dwindled after that, the documentary tries to explain why. Critics will say that the documentary is more like a rock video promoting inline skating. The video contains many shots of professional skaters doing what they are best at. The documentary also contains old footage and TV broadcasts. There is also mention of the IMYTA (I match your trick association), an informal competition among skaters.

Because rollerblading has now, more or less, gone underground, it no longer appears alive, hence the title "Barely Dead".

There have been a number of "skate documentaries", Black Market being one of them. Before that there were "Hoax" and "Hoax 2". The skaters that made these "documentaries" claim that they were actually performing professionally, while claiming that they were making a documentary. Hence the name hoax. And because the first video was successful, another was made: Hoax 2.

Awards

Winner of the 2005 London Freesports Film festival.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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