Spencer Legebokoff is hoping viewers of his new film see skateboarding less as a sport and more of an artistic expression.
The local filmmaker’s new film Waltz has been picked to premiere at the Vladimir Film Festival in Fazana, Croatia. Although the festival focuses on independent skateboarding films, Legebokoff worked with dancers to bring a different aesthetic to his 10-minute piece.
“I wanted to show that skateboarding is not an extreme sport if you don’t want it to be,” said Legebokoff. “By that I mean I wanted to highlight the elegance and the beauty of it.”
Legebokoff’s second film Stigma showed last year at the Civic Theatre. He had submitted it for the festival but didn’t hear back until a reply several months later asked him to submit for this year’s festival, which runs Sept. 27 to 30 in the small town located on the Adriatic Sea coast near Slovenia and Italy.
Whereas Stigma was a three-year project involving over 20 skaters filmed in locations including Calgary, Ottawa, Montreal and Vancouver, he said Waltz is a far more scaled back and curated project involving just nine skaters.
Legebokoff began filming in February in Seattle and later included shots from Nelson, Castlegar, Trail and Vancouver.
“This film has given me a step toward exactly what I like and don’t like,” he said. “Before it was a lot more experimentation. … With this one, it’s now solidifying this is what I’m into and creating my own aesthetic and making it so if somebody sees my films they know who made it before seeing the credits at the end.”
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