By the Smiths—Aaron and Lwany—are a new filmmaking duo based in LA. For their first film, “Above the Noise,” they made a striking short about perhaps the most pernicious thing in skateboarding: sexist comments on social media. The comments are played as voiceover, first read by male voice actors while skaters Samarria Brevard, Jenn Soto, and Lizzie Armanto do their thing (be talented professional skateboarders), and then transitioning to the women reading their own haters in their own voices. We’re all kind of inured to online chatter, even when it’s really hateful, but hearing it read aloud is pretty striking. It’s all so batshit that hearing it read out loud creates a sort of comedic cognitive dissonance, as you can’t imagine someone actually saying this stuff to an actual human. However, it’s also an important reminder that there is still a long way to go towards equality in skateboarding. We got in touch with the couple to learn a little bit more about why they chose to make their first film about this particular subject, and what they hoped to achieve by doing it. – SKATEISM
Is this the first film you’ve made together?
Aaron: It is!
What interested you in showing women skateboarders in this particular way? Is it something near and dear to your hearts, because you skate? Or was it just something you observed online and were alarmed by?
Aaron: I grew up skateboarding, I’ve been skateboarding for more than half my life. Lwany grew up around skateboarding, and when we decided that we wanted to start directing together, we wanted to do something that was close to our hearts. Skateboarding was. And I was paying attention to women’s skateboarding as it was on the rise, and getting really stoked on it, then started to realize that there were all these terrible comments. We were really taken aback.
What power is there to reading these comments out loud? That to me was one of the most interesting things about the film, was how they sound when they’re actually being read off the page.
Lwany: Yeah, I think that the first step towards fixing a problem is shedding light on it and acknowledging the problem. I think reading them out loud, we didn’t have to add any embellishment or do anything for it to be as impactful as it is. Bottom line is a lot of those comments we know were made as a joke, but at the end of the day it’s still misogyny, and that’s just wrong.
Yeah. And it seems like it stands out more when you read it out loud than it does when you just see it on Instagram.
L: Totally. I think it’s easy to scroll through comments like that and just say, ‘Oh it’s not a big deal.’ Even the girls, I think they make it a point to not engage and ignore the negativity that goes with their profession, but its’s still like they’re the butt of a joke. And this is their livelihood and something that they sacrifice a lot to excel in.
And particularly these women are so serious about their skating. I think of Samarria as such a dedicated, consummate skateboarder, and then people are telling her to go make a sandwich? It’s like, ‘Can you do any of this shit?’ It’s almost comical.
A: Yeah, and particularly while recording the voiceover all of us would just laugh sometimes about how insane and how stupid some of these people are. Like the comments they would make, it’s just… It really wasn’t getting to them, no one shed a tear while they were reading [the comments] or really got down. That’s just kind of a testament these women are and how strong all women skateboarders are, they just rise above it.
Did you look into any of these profiles? Like find out who these commenters are?
A: Did we talk to any of them, you mean?
Or just, like, look at them. See what they’re putting out online besides these random comments on women’s pages.
A: We never went down the rabbit hole really. Is that what you’re asking?
Yeah, kind of what the demographic of people who leave these mean comments is. But anyway, who did you have read them?
A: We had two male friends read the comments in the beginning, and then it was Lizzie, Samarria, and Jen that read the rest of them.
Oh, they read their own comments!? For a second I thought that, because they were read in women’s voices, that was other women leaving the comments. But it’s them reading their haters?
A: Yeah, our approach to it was for us to show first the comments that were being written and then the experience of them reading it.
What did you want it to convey to people? Especially people who are seeing it who maybe do harbor some, let’s say, mixed views about women’s skateboarding. Who maybe say some of this stuff in private.
L: We were really interested in having the juxtaposition of somebody talking shit on somebody that’s obviously excelling at something. I dunno, there’s something to be said for having these comments rooted in ignorance and lack of compassion and lack of appreciation and almost making it… It’s very territorial. Like there’s these dudes that think that skateboarding should only belong to dudes, because that’s who’s been doing it for forever. We really wanted to bring light to how ridiculous that is, because it’s just really antiquated. The thing that I think we want people to get out of this the most and to take away from this is curiosity. Hopefully to look at other people’s life experiences and take the time to look into women’s skateboarding. I think that applies to all sports, not only skateboarding, where women are catching up and getting recognition for their talents.
A: So another big thing from this project, like Lwany said earlier, is that you don’t know there’s a problem until it’s been pointed out. When we showed this project to our friends and other professional skateboarders, they pulled us aside at the premiere and were like, ‘I had no idea that this was an issue. I’ve skated with these girls and I know these girls really well and I had no idea that this is what they were dealing with.’ Also we want it to kind of start a conversation. Someone commenting back on these comments isn’t going to change anything. What’s going to change is these commenters’ friends, if they hear someone say something like this—at a skatepark or whatever—they need to call that out.
To kind of shut it down right away?
L: Yeah, regardless of if it’s trying to be funny or off-the-cuff and not a big deal, just laying it all out there like we did is making it seem like what it is, which is just fucked up.
A: Forty years ago, I’m sure people were making these “funny” jokes about race—
L: Well they still are.
But no one’s laughing anymore?
A: Yeah, but right now people are making these [sexist] jokes and are getting away with it because they’re saying ‘Oh it’s just a joke, relax, take it easy.’
Or even getting praise for it. Getting all their buddies in the comments saying, ‘Hahaha, you told her.’
A: Right. And there have been scientific studies showing that the only way to change something like this is someone that is like you calling you out. It’s not the person that you’re making fun of calling you out, that’s not going to change it whatsoever. It’s someone that is next to you that you think of as a friend, that you think shares your ideals. If they call you out, it means so much more.
So it’s for the bros to see?
A: Exactly. We’re hoping that that’s the reaction that any of the guys have. And then we’re hoping that any girls that watch this know that they’re not alone.
L: One of my friends — she’s not a skateboarder, she works as actress and model sometimes — and she pulled me aside and told me that she shed a tear [watching the film] because she gets these comments. She thought it was just exclusive to her line of work, but I guess knowing that women athletes also get these kind of comments was comforting to her. Knowing that she’s not the only one that has to work harder at what she does than men do. As women, our life experience is so much difference than dudes, and I think it’s easy for dudes to not even realize that. But we can take all the allies we can get.
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To attend a live screening of “Above the Noise” on September 7 in NYC, followed by a Q & A with Jenn Soto, RSVP to the 98 Orchard Gallery here.
