Minding the Gap

Two briefly glimpsed slogans sum up this humane, infectious, moving, Oscar-nominated documentary about friendship and growing up. The first appears on a skate-shop proprietor's T-shirt: "Make Rockford skate again." It refers to the Rust Belt town in Illinois where our three fleet-footed protagonists race and trick-jump around empty streets to escape the strife of homes broken by absent or abusive fathers. They make a neat ethnic cross-section: Zack is Caucasian, Keire African-American and Bing - who produced, directed, shot and co-edited the film over 12 years - Chinese-American, but their outlook is colourblind (it's Keire who jokingly exclaims "I'm black, I can't swim!") and heart-warmingly loyal. Soda is eventually replaced by beer and school by McJobs (and in Zack's case, an unplanned baby with his on-off girlfriend), but it's fear of responsibility that's most painfully felt ("We have to fully grow up and it's gonna suck"). Bing candidly interrogates his friends and secrets are revealed, not least when interviewing his own mother on camera. The film's second defining slogan is painted onto a skateboard: "This device cures heartache" (a play on musician Woody Guthrie's claim "This guitar kills fascists"); and, once the painful truth comes out, the four-wheeled plank of wood does just that.