Review | Females cook up a storm in Skate Kitchen

Skate Kitchen | Luna Leederville | July 7, 12, 18 | ★ ★ ★ ★ ½ 

Skate Kitchen, written and directed by Crystal Moselle, throws a group of older teenage girls into the testosterone mix of a New York skateboarding community. The opening scene is excruciating as Camille (Rachelle Vinberg) is injured while trying a difficult manoeuvre.

Her passion for skateboarding means that she defies her mother’s ban and sneaks out of the house to join the female crew. With a cast made up mostly of the actual skaters who run the Instagram page called Skate Kitchen, the skill level is high and there is obvious rapport between the characters.

Previously filming documentaries, Moselle first came across the female skaters on a train. There is a documentary feel as these “young, dumb and broke high school kids”, obviously on their summer break, tear up the streets capturing their antics on their phones, smoke weed and try to navigate round the boys who inhabit the same spaces and take greater risks.

Conflicts over territory highlight the sexism the sisterhood has to overcome and of course the biggest upset comes when Camille becomes romantically entangled with sk8er boy Devon (Jaden Smith). Spiced with a tinge of danger, this authentic coming-of-age film takes a step for female empowerment in an age when all problems can be solved by a well-worded text.

Catch it at Luna Leederville for Revelation Film Festival from July 5 – 18.