Is skateboarding art? This question is incredibly boring to consider, so thank god some skaters have taken it off the table by doing both and not worrying if they’re the same thing. This arrangement is documented in a new series coming to VICE’s YouTube channel. Let It Kill You is a potent cluster-bomb of epiphanies, inspiration, freedom, poignancy, paint and shredding, and if you liked Epicly Later’d – or any of our other skateboarding films over the years – you’re going to love it.
Produced by Ben McQueen and Trevar Cushing (a longtime friend of VICE who was hosting films for us way back in the days of VBS) Let It Kill You is named after the famous Bukowski quote about finding the thing you love and then letting it drive you into the grave. The series is a suitably intense examination of the nexus between skateboarding and art, and the first three episodes are deep dives into the art and skateboarding careers of Ryan Townley, Mike Gigliotti and Michael Sieben.
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Backed up by a wide supporting cast – including Andrew Reynolds, Kevin ‘Spanky’ Long, Michael Burnett, Austin Amelio, Jeremy Fish, Andrew Allen and many more – and based on McQueen’s photo book of the same name, Let It Kill You will arrive in six revelatory episodes, starting from May 28. Get a taste for it in the trailer below.
