I got a Christian vibe from this right away, before I got to… well cameo appearances by Christian Hosoi and Bennet Harada. What happens when your life takes a hard flip? Teenager Caleb Jones goes skateboarding. With no father in his life to guide him and his mother, Beth, working two jobs to make ends meet, Caleb believes nothing matters in life but becoming a sponsored skater to get him away from all his troubles. When his mother falls ill, Caleb is forced to deal with her illness and his lack of responsibility. Now on his own, he sets out to find the father he never knew when he stumbles upon some old love letters. Out of hurt and anger, Caleb reluctantly contacts his father Jack, who happened to live the next town over from him his entire life. Calebs only real friend, a crazy, homeless, street preacher named Ralph, speaks nuggets of Truth through Gods Word, guiding Caleb along his journey. Through the tragedy of his mothers illness and the sudden appearance of the father he never knew, Caleb becomes the man his mother always prayed hed be. Caleb is a story of what can happen when we let…

Underexposed is a film by Amelia Brodka focusing on the plight of women in the professional skateboarding arena. At a time when women’s skateboarding seems bigger than ever, there seem to be fewer opportunities for girls to pursue the sport. How can this be changed? Underexposed explores the past, present and future of women’s skateboarding. It focuses on the current uprise of female skaters by featuring footage of girls ripping all over the world. The film couples skate footage with interviews from the top marketing and media professionals of the skateboarding industry. Interviews include the heads of: Thrasher, TransWorld, Etnies, Toy Machine, SkateOne and Hoopla. By exploring the business side of skateboarding, Underexposed seeks to figure out how to generate more opportunities for women in skateboarding. The first pubic screening of Underexposed is February 14th, 9:00PM at the Fry St Theater (1210 W. Hickory) in Denton, Texas as part of the Thin Line Film Festival

I hear they are making a sequel to Zoolander. I don’t remember seeing this from the first time around. The sport sandals make this look. If it had been made a few years later they would have used a longboard.

I’ve been waiting for an official trailer to post on this, but so far the only clip out there is this excerpt. It looks pretty good from this bit, although Stacy comes off a little maniacal. I thought I read that he had resisted making this film. It will be interesting to see if he does more than just the Bones Brigade love fest the fans will eat up considering there was no real drama akin to the trials and tribulations of the Z-boys. Who knows, maybe there’s a bombshell in there somewhere. It did show at Sundance, and the bitterness in Tony’s commentary about the peak of his (first) popularity is a little unexpected. So maybe there’s more than meets the eye. Nostalgia is fine and well, but here’s hoping that we get to see where and what these guys were up to during the crash of the 90’s. [Source: Poweredge] UPDATE: Reviewed at Hitfix. Additional Stacy Peralta Sundance interview added.

No pads? Rad Dad: Dispatches from the frontiers of fatherhood is a book by Tom Moniz, published by Microcosm Publishing. It’s excerpts of his zine of the same name and another called Daddy Dialectic “two kindred publications that have explored parenting as political territory.” Yowza. Sounds a lot heavier than the other alternadad literature like Punk Rock Dad, which is a good read by Pennywise front man Jim Lindberg. There’s a lot of that going around lately. It seems adults these days are staying young until they die. It’s come up on NPR I believe, 80’s punks and 90’s Gen X-ers are having kids, raising them and refusing to be stuffy about it. Jim’s book was published in 2007. I read it around the same time I had my first kid, and enjoyed it. Right about now The Other F-Word is slowly opening around the US. It’s a documentary based on the same subject matter as the book. Skateboard connection too. According to NPR, Tony Hawk is one of the subjects. – Thanks to the original Punk Rock dad MC for the tip.

Singularly the goofiest thing I’ve seen in awhile. I was confused at first, but burst out laughing at the 56 second mark. The thing that really makes it is the voiceover and sound effects are all done by the same guy, multitrack Matt Mulholland. Sit down and watch the birth of the skateboard from the chase scene in Back to the Future, but with an a capella soundtrack. If you dig it, check out his Matrix scene too. Yeah, I watch Glee. – Thanks to Andrew Wahl for the tip.

Movie prop from Gleaming the Cube was up on eBay. It’s basically a skateboard with a deck made out of solid metal. It sold for $416. Sorry to blow this out for you Neil. Get some more Christian Slater skateboard action here.

Rio is the name of an animated movie that, near as I can tell from the previews they are showing on TV, has no plot other than the fact that a bunch of cheeky animals are hanging out together in Brazil. The movie doesn’t open until this weekend, but that hasn’t stopped 20th Century Fox from hooking up with McDonalds for a Happy Meal Promo. Finding out when the movie opens led me to another trailer where I learned the bird can’t fly, and he rides a skateboard in the movie.

Nothing to do with religion, Highway Gospel is a documentary on the downhill and slalom race scene that has come of age (again) outside of and in spite of the mainstream skateboard industry. These types of underground skateboarding events harken back to the early years of Thrasher, if not before. Highway Gospel is part of the Hot Docs film festival in Toronto, Canada which runs from April 28 – May 8. From there the film heads west to the DOXA film festival in Vancouver to premiere on May 13th. Trailer after the jump.

Check out some behind the scenes footage of Chris Evans on the set of Scott Pilgrim filming a skateboard stunt using a harness to nail a 50-50 on a rail. I know it’s a weak post, but I’ve liked Michael Cera since Arrested Development. Check it out. And since it’s filler, I’m not stopping there. After the jump you can watch a reporter making demonstrating a skatepark etiquette fail. – Thanks to Eric Cherry and John Egertson for the tip.