No matter where you live, breaking out and becoming a professional skateboarder is no easy feat. Now imagine being from a small town in rural America where few of your fellow citizens ever leave home in search of something bigger. There the cards are stacked against an aspiring pro athlete. But some, like 20-year-old Tory Grant, have big dreams of breaking free from the mundane routine of a small town and making it in the highly competitive world of skateboarding.
Award winning documentary film 'The Blackboard' was produced and directed by attorney/indie filmmaker Marquis Bradshaw. The film aims to challenge what it means to be black in America by examining the issue of acceptance within the black community through the lens of skateboarding culture. 'The Blackboard' stars prominent black pro skaters Jabari Pendleton, Karl Watson, and Ron Allen
Zach was born in Boston, Adam in New York. They met over a decade ago through a shared love of skateboarding. One summer, they skated from Boston to New York. Using a network of friends, friends of friends, and strangers they skated from town to town and filmed everything along the way in order to rediscover their small part of the world. Backstreet Atlas is part documentary, part skate video, and part modern urban travelogue. Good trips, times, and people aren't hard to come by.
