Skateboarding is something that I’ve tried a few times. Unfortunately, I have yet to successfully accomplish staying on the board for more than a couple of seconds. It is something I find to be extremely difficult, and thought “how could anyone have the patience for this?”

Josh “Skreech” Sandoval sure as hell does, and anyone who watches Tristan Patterson’s Dragonslayer at the Vancouver International Film Festival this year will know exactly what I mean. Patterson’s dark, yet enlightening documentary illustrates the complexities of the homeless skateboarder who, despite all of the shit he’s been through and is currently going through, is trying very hard to quench his passion for skateboarding any way he can, even if it means boarding in empty swimming pools (that did not belong to him) and competing in competitions all over the world. On one hand he’s an addict who drinks and parties often, and on the other hand he’s a father to this adorable child named Rocket (pretty sweet, huh?) and boyfriend to a reasonably understanding high school student who basically looks past his wild,partying ways. It is these very conflicting lifestyles and complexities that made for an interesting storyline.

I had a chance to speak with Patterson about the film earlier this week.

“Pretty instantly when I met Skreech, I thought he was interesting. I thought that the world he was living up was interesting to me as well and I wanted to capture that moment in time”, says Patterson. While 35 year old Patterson was searching and hoping to do something experimental with his next film, he met Skreech at a party.  “I just thought he had a strange poetry, and I liked the idea of making something that is different ‘cause no one else could make a movie like this one. There are no other people out there who are like Skreech. There’s a sort of authenticity of who he is. He’s very upfront about things.”

And Voila! In 2009, Patterson began working with Skreech on Dragonslayer. But yes, it’s true: If Skreech isn’t a breed of his own, then I don’t know what is!  Dragonslayer demonstrates Skreech’s appreciation for everything that is handed his way, and not once through the entire film does he become remotely selfish or turn on anyone close to him. For someone who literally has as little in his pocket as his burning passion for skateboarding, Skreech felt lucky and grateful for every little contribution his friends and Skateboarding sponsors could hand his way. While most of us would have probably cringed at the thought of staying in a tent of someone’s backyard during a skateboarding competition, he considered himself as being “hooked up phat”, and meant it. The way he appreciated everyone and everything around him was quite remarkable, and kind of made me feel like an asshole for taking everything around me for granted.

It’s not every day that a drug addict/alcoholic skateboarder is portrayed in such a light where the audience is left feeling like they are one with them, and that they are really and truly good people, and I think that is another one of the reasons that I appreciated the film the way I did. Nothing about this film felt contrived or clichéd as some reality television or documentaries do; rather it was a very real film that had no hidden agenda. Patterson reassures us that his only agenda was to be authentic to himself, and that he was not trying to capitalize on anything. It simply went through the trials of a unique individual trying to get through each day dealing with the issues that I’m sure I mentioned earlier in the article.

“He’s kind of ‘off the map”, and it’s honest, you know? I felt like what he was giving me and what was coming back to me was really honest. It felt really refreshing to me; the idea of making something like that.”

The filming process was just as genuine. A lot of the filming done in the film was Skreech’s preparation for competitions, or the trials associated with his different lifestyle. Each moment in the film, according to Patterson, highlights what Skreech does day to day.“I didn’t want to film him doing anything he wouldn’t do anyways,” he says. Making this documentary as real as possible meant that if Patterson and his crew showed up to filming and Skreech wasn’t down to film, they wouldn’t film. Thankfully, though, that didn’t negatively impede the product of the film in any way, shape, or form.

Like I said, it’s not every day that you’re inspired by a homeless, addict, skateboarder, and one will only understand if they watch Patterson’s wonderful documentary at VIFF. Thank you, Mr. Tristan Patterson, for being a gem and allowing me to interview you, and thank you to VIFF for accommodating Y57!

Photos from www.viff.org