Moselle and Arfin Team Up to Create HBO Skateboarding Comedy

Filmmakers Moselle and Arfin are teaming up to create a skateboarding comedy that will air on HBO.  The show, directed by Crystal Moselle, will be based on Moselle’s award-winning film Skate Kitchen, and will be produced by Lesley Arfin, co-creator of the series Love.

The show is currently untitled, but the story will be very similar to Skate Kitchen, which was released this past summer. Based in New York City, the series will follow young female skaters as they struggle to succeed in a male-dominated scene.

“As girls we were never brave enough to try skateboarding,” Moselle and Arfin confided. “We’re excited to work on a project that could potentially get other girls to feel inspired enough to face their fears, fight the patriarchy and start shredding. Women are changing the game across industries all over this country. Why not add skateboarding to that list?”

Besides Skate Kitchen, Moselle is also famous for her documentary The Wolfpack, which follows  six brothers in New York that perform reenactments of their favorite movies. “I’m obsessed with authentic realism and when I work with non-actors I feel that I can make them virgins of themselves,” admitted Moselle. Her film Skate Kitchen also followed this vein, intertwining gorgeous cinematography with gritty realism. The dance-like skating sequences contrast with the at times vulgar conversation and real-world problems the girls face.

Arfin also has a laundry list of accomplishments.  Prior to her film industry years, she used to write a column called simply  ‘Dear Diary’ in Vice Magazine. Additionally, she has written for HBO’s Girls, MTV’s Awkward, and Fox’s Brooklyn Nine Nine. In an interview with Vogue, Arfin described her mission: “I’m interested in seeing women who make mistakes and, like, don’t learn a lesson from it. Or they make mistakes and the consequences aren’t that bad. Or maybe they make them again. Maybe there’s a way to have a female character who is both good and bad, and who isn’t a mom or a vixen or a baby.”

The name of the series is yet to be determined. However, with the esteem of both Arfin and Moselle’s preceding works, it is likely that the show will be something viewers have not seen before.   

Rachel Beede: With a B.A. in English and Master's in Curriculum and Instruction, Rachel currently works at a charter school when not writing for mxdwn. In her free time, she edits video and volunteers on AFI student film shoots.
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