Skateistan opens with a stark and grisly view of modern day Kabul, Afghanistan. It depicts scenes of an arduous lifestyle combined with the backdrop of recent wars. These bleak images culminate to a shot of a decapitated goat's head lying on the ground with a 17 year old Murza and his friends skating past it in the background.
Skateistan is an educational skateboarding school in Kabul. The film shows how this organisation has transformed the toilsome and treacherous lives of these young people and given them something positive to focus on and enjoy.
Murza comments that passers by look on them skating strangely and that some of them think they are "attached to the boards through some sort of magnetic field.". This reveals the fact that a lot of people go uneducated in Afghanistan as schools and education systems are still quite a new concept there.
Skateistan highlights the progressive values that the school is introducing in Kabul. It is growing in popularity with females, which for a very conservative country, causes a bit of controversy. It tells the story of Fazilla who is 12 years old and sells chewing gum on the streets. She says her father and many other people disagree with her skating as she is a girl. She says quite profoundly, "their opinions are meaningless to me...I really like skating and I won't stop". Segments like these reveal how intelligent these young children are and how a better education system in Afghanistan would only be a catalyst for their brightness.
The youth of Kabul skating through a ruined building in Skateistan
Franklin Dow's cinematography is breathtaking and does an incredible job of showing warmth and hope in a seemingly desolate and unfriendly place. Overall I think this short documentary does a great job of showing possibilities and a positive look on the future generation of a country that has stayed in the past through the development of the rest of the world.
Skateistan highlights the progressive values that the school is introducing in Kabul. It is growing in popularity with females, which for a very conservative country, causes a bit of controversy. It tells the story of Fazilla who is 12 years old and sells chewing gum on the streets. She says her father and many other people disagree with her skating as she is a girl. She says quite profoundly, "their opinions are meaningless to me...I really like skating and I won't stop". Segments like these reveal how intelligent these young children are and how a better education system in Afghanistan would only be a catalyst for their brightness.
Franklin Dow's cinematography is breathtaking and does an incredible job of showing warmth and hope in a seemingly desolate and unfriendly place. Overall I think this short documentary does a great job of showing possibilities and a positive look on the future generation of a country that has stayed in the past through the development of the rest of the world.
No comments:
Post a Comment