Ivan Kander
As Short of the Week alum Mickey Duzyj’s Netflix docuseries reminded us, in sport there is no shortage of incredibly talented athletes who have glimpsed greatness but were ultimately denied long lasting glory.
Scratched: Lee Ralph, an episode from a YouTube series produced by Hex Work Productions for the New Zealand online magazine The Spinoff about underappreciated athletes, feels like it stems from that same creative DNA. Both series are very much interested in examining this particular idea of “almost famous” and the effect that it can have, both physically and emotionally, on people who nearly grasp the brass ring. In the case of Ralph, being on the precipice of greatness is, perhaps, more interesting than achieving it—a heartbreaking “could have been” sort of story that reckons with success and failure in a way that no simplistic Hollywood-ified tale ever could.
In the 80s, Lee Ralph was on the verge of icon status. A Kiwi Skateboarder who was riding the rising tide of a booming United States skate culture, Ralph was sponsored by cool brands and was shredding with the likes of Tony Hawk. But, then, just as he was about to become the next mega-famous concrete surfer he…well…didn’t.
Lee Ralph finds happiness in the “simple life” as he works on a farm and carves wood sculptures.
It’s a rags to almost-riches story that, followed by a few bad breaks, finds Ralph on a slow downward spiral into depression and addiction. It’s difficult material at times, but the film never wallows in its own misery: Ralph directly addresses his addiction, but the film doesn’t spend time milking the lugubriousness of it. Rather, we then watch as Ralph finds a new form of “success” making peace with his place in annals of skateboard history, finding happiness in the “simple life” as he works on a farm and carves wood sculptures.
Profile docs are quite common in the short film landscape and I won’t argue this piece is doing much to challenge or subvert the form. Still, director Madeleine Chapman’s documentary short succeeds purely on the charisma of its central subject. Ralph is a magnetic screen presence—behind his gap-filled grin and weathered face you can still recognize the youthful exuberance that defined his passion for skateboarding when he was shredding with the greats. He’s just a compelling subject and Chapman, smartly, avoids any artifice that would prevent that from coming through on screen.
It also helps that skateboarding in and of itself is always visually compelling subject matter. Skate films have been ubiquitous in the world of short video long before the internet: after all, it was skaters decked out with camcorders in the 80s and 90s who helped to usher in the digital video revolution. The film takes advantage of that, combining archival, home-video footage of Ralph in his prime with a talking-head of Ralph as he is now, looking back and providing frank commentary on both the soaring highs and the dark lows.
You can watch more episodes of The Spinoff’s Scratched series on YouTube.