What is the best skateboarding documentary of all time?

Sundance prizewinners share space with cult portraits of 1980s pros and an Oscar-winning short. Some celebrate the ride; others count what it cost.

1. 1
   Dogtown and Z-Boys

   Stacy Peralta's 2001 documentary about the Zephyr skate team of 1970s Santa Monica and Venice, narrated by Sean Penn; it won the Audience Award and the Directing Award for documentary at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival.
   1000pts
2. 2
   Waiting for Lightning

   A 2012 documentary about Danny Way, building up to his 2005 jump over the Great Wall of China on a skateboard.
   754pts
3. 3
   Minding the Gap

   Bing Liu's 2018 documentary following him and two skateboarding friends growing up in Rockford, Illinois; it was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.
   636pts
4. 4
   Stoked: The Rise and Fall of Gator

   Helen Stickler's documentary about 1980s vert star Mark "Gator" Rogowski, whose career collapsed before he pleaded guilty to a 1991 murder.
   636pts
5. 5
   Bones Brigade: An Autobiography

   A 2012 documentary by Stacy Peralta about the 1980s Powell Peralta team that included Tony Hawk, Rodney Mullen, Steve Caballero and Lance Mountain; it premiered at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival.
   538pts
6. 6
   The Man Who Souled the World

   Mike Hill's 2007 documentary about Steve Rocco and the founding of World Industries, which reshaped the skateboard industry in the early 1990s.
   418pts
7. 7
   The Motivation

   Adam Bhala Lough's 2013 documentary following eight professional street skaters, including Nyjah Huston and Paul Rodriguez, toward the Street League Skateboarding championship in Newark, New Jersey.
   418pts
8. 8
   Tony Hawk: Until the Wheels Fall Off

   Sam Jones's 2022 HBO documentary on Tony Hawk's career, from his teenage contest wins to the first 900 landed at the 1999 X Games.
   418pts
9. 9
   Dragonslayer

   Tristan Patterson's 2011 documentary following skater Josh "Skreech" Sandoval through backyard pools in Southern California; it won the Grand Jury Award for documentary feature at SXSW 2011.
   418pts
10. 10
    Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone

    Carol Dysinger's short documentary about girls at a Skateistan school in Kabul, which won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Short Subject in 2020.
    0pts
11. 11
    All This Mayhem

    Eddie Martin's 2014 documentary about Australian brothers Tas and Ben Pappas, who rose to the top of 1990s vert skating before drug addiction and crime.
    0pts
12. 12
    The Devil's Toy

    Claude Jutra's short for the National Film Board of Canada (Rouli-roulant) on early skateboarding in Montreal, where police and adults frowned on the new pastime.
    0pts

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