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Skate in Tokyo

Skate in Tokyo is a short documentary film about skateboarding & its scene in Tokyo. An exploration of the nature of skateboarding, and what its inclusion in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics means for the sport. Told through the stories of a collection of local Japanese skaters.

  • Steffan Roe Griffiths
    Director
    Mistakes in Tokyo
  • Tetsuya Yasuta
    Key Cast
  • Azusa Nigo
    Key Cast
  • Yuka Sasaki
    Key Cast
  • Oliver Blue
    Music
  • Steffan Roe Griffiths
    Producer
  • Steffan Roe Griffiths
    Editor
  • Project Type:
    Documentary, Short
  • Genres:
    Skateboarding, Sport, Documentary, Short, Skate
  • Runtime:
    11 minutes 49 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    December 14, 2019
  • Production Budget:
    100 GBP
  • Country of Origin:
    Japan
  • Country of Filming:
    Japan
  • Language:
    Japanese
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Copper Coast International Film Festival
    Swansea
    United Kingdom
    January 28, 2020
    Official Selection, Semi-Finalist in Competition
  • Top Indie Film Awards
    Tokyo
    Japan
    December 1, 2019
    Winner - Best Documentary Short, Nominee: Best Cinematography, Best Music & Best Editing
  • Carmarthen Bay Film Festival
    Carmarthen
    United Kingdom
    June 25, 2020
    Official Selection
  • Barnes Film Festival
    London
    United Kingdom
    June 23, 2020
    Nominee - Best International Short Documentary
  • Tokyo Lift-Off Film Festival
    Tokyo
    Japan
    June 15, 2020
    Official Selection
  • San Francisco Frozen Film Festival
    San Francisco
    United States
    July 8, 2020
    Winner - Best Surf/Skate Video
  • Wales International Film Festival
    Swansea
    United Kingdom
    September 17, 2020
    Nominee - Best Short Documentary
Director Biography - Steffan Roe Griffiths

Steffan is an award-winning filmmaker from Swansea, Wales, specialising in vignette dramas & intimate documentaries about subcultures and creative individuals.

From 2012-2018 he lived in Japan, where he taught English at a high school in Kyoto before moving to Tokyo to make films. Steffan is fluent in Japanese.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

Skate in Tokyo is my most recent film, finished in December 2019.

As a filmmaker and skateboarder from the UK who lived in Japan for six years and speaks fluent Japanese, I couldn’t resist making this film -- I feel that skateboarding was the perfect way to communicate many observations about both Japanese society and the sport.

Skateboarding is also now experiencing huge growth and change around the world; as it will be an Olympic sport for the first time in history in the now Tokyo 2021 Olympic games.

My aim was to explore these dynamics through Skate in Tokyo.

I hope you enjoy watching the film as much as we did making it.