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2018 Doc Stories

United Skates

Directed by Tina Brown, Dyana Winkler

USA | 90

4 Nov
Sun, Nov 4, 2018 at 4:30 pm PT

Description

Eight wheels and a roller rink hold special significance in the African American community, as the act of roller skating provides a meaningful, vibrant, and safe way for people to express themselves. Examining the historical and cultural influence of skating rinks around the county, filmmakers Dyana Winkler and Tina Brown document recent rink closures and discriminatory regulations that make it harder for skaters to gather, while celebrating the community that is determined to keep the spirit and their skating alive.   

“A window onto a vibrant American subculture that is currently endangered (as so many other things are) by real-estate profiteers, Dyana Winkler and Tina Brown’s United Skates introduces African Americans who for generations have found a refuge from the world in the roller rink.” —John DeFore, The Hollywood Reporter

Director Tina Brown, Dyana Winkler

New York-based, Vietnamese-Australian filmmaker Tina Brown has worked in media and entertainment through various roles including film publicist, magazine editor and writer, television and film producer, and now filmmaker. Brown co-produced the award-winning feature-length documentary Dear Mandela, which was supported by the Sundance Institute and was nominated for an African Academy Award. In 2009, she co-founded 2300 Films with her Emmy-award winning Director of Photography husband, Matt Peterson ACS. They have shot features and commercials in almost every US state including Alaska and Hawaii, and international locations from the San Blas Islands to Portugal. 

For nearly a decade, Dyana Winkler worked full time supporting filmmakers at the Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program and later the Tribeca Film Institute Feature Film Program. Winkler also worked as a screener for Chicken & Egg Pictures, programmed for the Sundance Film Festival and the Outfest Film Festival, and is an alumnus of the Film Independent Fast Track and Documentary Lab. Her most recent narrative screenplay, Bell, was awarded the 2016 Sundance Sloan Commissioning grant, the 2017 SFFILM Sloan Science in Cinema Fellowship, and participated in the 2017 Sundance Screenwriter’s Lab. Winkler spent nearly a decade living internationally, where she interviewed recent escapees from Tibet for local TV stations and newspapers, and directed a short documentary film on South Asian orphanages for the BBC.

Film Details

Language English

Year 2018

Runtime 90

Country USA

Director Tina Brown, Dyana Winkler

Producer Tina Brown, Dyana Winkler

Editor Katharine Garrison

Cinematographer Matt Peterson

Music Jongnic Bontemps, Jim Winkler