Dragonslayer (Tristan Patterson, 2011): USA

Reviewed by Jonas Johansson. Viewed at AFI Fest 2011.

Josh “Skreech” Sandoval is a local legend around Fullerton’s skateparks and abandoned swimming pools in California. Dragonslayer captures the life and times of “skreech” in a real “lords of dogtown” style, Tristan Patterson who is the director of this touching documentary meet “skreech” during a party he got invited to in the suburb Chino.  Here is Patterson’s own words “I met Skreech at a party in an abandoned airfield off the I-10 in Chino, California right after our country’s economic collapse. He had a lime-green Mohawk and was wearing a matching Screamers T-shirt in honor of the L.A. punk band that never recorded an album. He looked malnourished and lost, and claimed he was on 5 tabs of acid. It was impossible to talk to him; his head was lost in the clouds. Then I saw him skate”.

He felt right away that it would make a great documentary since the old punk culture slowly starting do fade away but Skreech and his group of friends is living it to the fullest.

Patterson handles Skreech a flip cam and tells him to start recording everything he does and of course Patterson’s team was there filming a ton of footage to, I think this creates a great concept because clearly there is a difference when skreech is filming and when the team is. As a new father skreech got also new responsibilities to handle, see how he juggles everything going on in his life with love, skating, making money, traveling and taking care of his newborn in Dragonslayer.


About this entry