Lady of Dogtown

Film: Valley director takes Lords of Dogtown to the big screen

By KEVIN GARCIA

The Brownsville Herald

June 10, 2005 With two critically acclaimed movies under her belt, Catherine Hardwicke has come a long way from her hometown, McAllen.

The South Texas filmmakers latest premiere, The Lords of Dogtown, hit theaters this month with the life story of the Zephyr Skate Team (known as the Z-Boys), and members Stacy Peralta, Tony Alva and Jay Adams in particular.

In it, they fight for recognition, respect, and eventual fame doing what they love.

Everybodys trying to find a sense of family and a sense of belonging, even when society is telling you not to, Hardwicke said. You could feel the anger and the crazy stuff going on in their lives.

Hardwicke, 50, isnt the only Rio Grande Valley native with films in theaters this year.

Brownsvilles Kris Kristofferson and Shelbie Bruce had prominent roles in Blade: Trinity and Spanglish, respectively. Harlingens Nick Stahl played a colorful part in Sin City.

The Valleys getting out there, Hardwicke said. If youre from the Valley, you can kick ass and make noise around the planet.

She didnt always plan to be a director. Hardwicke was working as an architect in McAllen when she decided to get into movies and friends at film school suggested she try production design.

Before this, I was a production designer on all kinds of really fun movies, she said. As I was watching other directors, I was getting ideas and taking notes.

One of her first assignments was the 1986 skateboard movie Thrashin, a campy film that included Alva as an actor, Peralta as second unit director, and Lance Mountain as a stunt double. Lance Mountain, an old teammate of star skater Tony Hawk and protg of Alva, did on-skateboard camerawork for Lords.

While living in Los Angeles, Hardwicke would see former Zephyr skaters regularly.

I surfed at Breakwater (Venice) where a lot of the Z-Boys still surf, she said.

Her first big break as a director came in with 2003s Thirteen, an R-rated and critically acclaimed look at modern teenagers.

Hardwicke said she prefers smaller budget films.

Lords cost about $25 million to make, and Thirteen was budgeted at about $1.5 million.

If you only spend a million dollars, they arent expecting you to make $20 million, and we got invited to the Oscars (for Thirteen), she said.

Holly Hunter received a best supporting actress nomination for her role in Thirteen.

Lords film was written by Peralta and includes many of the original Z-Boys and other professional skaters in the production that Hardwicke calls a rowdy bunch of guys.

Alva was the most active on set, helping pick locations, providing technical assistance and, Hardwicke said, he would just strap on a wig to perform some of the stunt work for actor Julio Oscar Mechoso, playing the character of Tony Alva. Peralta also did stunt work for his character, played by John Robinson.

Hardwicke said Alva enjoyed looking in California neighborhoods for pools producers would pay to have drained for filming.

He (Alva) was shocked, she said. He said I never thought I would be able to legally scout out pools and legally drain them.

Although elements of their lives were changed for the movie, Hardwicke wanted to keep the core of the Z-Boys story true, something she did by interviewing the skaters, their friends, parents and their competition.

These guys came from the wrong side of the tracks, but they stuck with what they loved, she said. They had all this angst and they turned it into this amazing physicality.

That also describes how Hardwicke feels about the movie, released June 3 in the middle of a big-budget summer season.

Its kind of a movie about underdogs, Hardwicke said. We kind of hope it can find an audience in the middle of all these Adam Sandler, Russell Crowe and Star Wars movies.

kgarcia@brownsvilleherald.com