Lindsey Skedgell photo
Skater / moviemaker Thomas Purtell at Plush screening Saturday.
Skaters rolled down the blacktop of a partially closed Orange Street, gathering in a large group. They were there Saturday night to see the premiere of Sucker, a new skate film by Thomas Purtell.
Inside Plush, the new skate shop started by skaters Alexis Sablone and Trevor Thompson and Ben Berkowitz that opened up at 96 Orange St. in September, people were gathering under the arched white walls, shoes and skateboards lining the edges of the room.
People of all ages carried their own skateboards in and out of the room, greeting Purtell with congratulations. On the TV screen behind him, the word “sucker” was spread across the screen against a black-and-white strip of film negatives. It was only a few minutes away from the premiere’s beginning.
Hanging out before the skate movie screening.
“This film took three years to make,” Purtell said. “It was mostly filmed out of Boston because that’s where I’m at now, but I’m from Cheshire, so it was filmed all around Connecticut too.”
Before the film began, Purtell addressed the crowd of people, which was growing at a steady pace, packing the room until barely any space was spared. “I worked really fucking hard on this video,” he said to a scream of applause. Then he hit play.
In Sucker, six different skaters were featured in their own segments that showcased their individual tricks and fumbles, which the crowd reacted to in equal measure. Between skating shots, old film reels were interspliced, showing snapshots of the skaters’ lives outside skating, scenes from nature, and glimpses of the neighborhoods in which they skated.
“I like everything about that!” one person shouted from the crowd after an impressive trick.
The crowd continued to scream in approval and awe throughout the screening, clearly showing when a mind-blowing skate move was made. Each skater featured in Sucker — Nate Dugan, Shawn Macmillan, Connor Noll, and Sir Michael Burrow, to name a few — had their own unique style of skating and moving through staircases and buildings and back alleys and the middle of the street.
After the screening, folks continued to skate up and down the closed block on Orange Street, continuing to run into people they knew from the Connecticut skating scene.
“It’s great to finally have a hub for the skate community here,” said Kevin Peterson, as the group kept hanging out into the night.
