Minding the Gap (2018)

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Director: Bing Liu

Featuring: Kent Abernathy, Mengyue Bolen, Nina Bowgren, Kiere Johnson, Bing Liu, Zack Mulligan



This profound documentary follows a group of skaters in Rockford, Illinois.



 At first, it seems as if it will be a well-photographed but essentially slight movie about the skating lifestyle. 



But as we get to know these young men better, the outer layers peel back organically and without fanfare until we realize that we are watching a film about intergenerational trauma. 



Filmmaker Bing Liu, who is one of these skaters, interviews and sometimes confronts his friends with direct, penetrating questions that reveal the physical abuse, alcoholism, racism, economic insecurity, and anger that has shaped these lives and is perpetuated through them. 



Liu always maintains sympathy for his subjects, even when they are making painful admissions about their own conduct, because we are given a portrait of the complete person.

 






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