If you hear something about Russia these days, pretty sure it’s not something good. This here is an exception. Our friend Kirill Korobkov sent us a message about a documentary he co-produced. It’s about skaters from Saint-Petersburg and Novosibirsk who built diy-parks. It’s about their lifes and their approach to skateboarding. It was filmed in 2021, when we all thought the world is already a doomed, batshit crazy hell hole, but now we’d love to go back to these times. Well…
That’s what Kirill Korobkov has to say abou the video:
“The
global situation has changed dramatically since we filmed this piece in
Russia around the summer of 2021. In our memories, it feels like we
documented all those faces and places the day before yesterday but the
problems and challenges we have in front of us these days make us
understand that the good old world from those days stopped existing.
While we worked on this documentary our vocabulary consisted of words
like fun, development, improvement, creativity, labor, spatula, and
concrete. Now we have to deal with terms like mobilization, military
draft, army, recruitment office, immigration, one-way ticket,
casualties, and funeral. The outbreak of the conflict in Ukraine has
become a game-changer for all of us and skaters aren't an exception.
This project turned out to be some kind of a memorial to us about
careless times from the past that maybe we all didn't appreciate enough.
Summer 2021 was our last peaceful summer and some of the last months of
Russia we used to know and understand. This was the wonderful world we
loved to enjoy and share with people around from inside and outside the
country.
The philosophy behind the DIY movement is about using your own
passion to make your own little world a better place for living. The
decisions that were made by our regime but not our people around the end
of February took us in an absolutely opposite direction. We don't feel
safe anymore. We don't feel even normal. We don't want to be where we
are right now and we are shocked by the current agenda around us.
Today's situation spread anxiety around. The future is very unclear. At
least we can look back at our past and enjoy nostalgia about those times
when our friends were up to skating and creating. We'll appreciate your
time watching our piece. We wish you to stay safe wherever you are.
P.S. “Do it yourself” is a documentary directed by Petr Barabaka
about the first notable shoots of DIY initiatives among Russian skaters
from Saint-Petersburg and Novosibirsk. The story is based on the
everyday life of skaters from the outskirts of big Russian cities who
took the initiative to make their environment a better place for the
community and people around them.“
