by SARAH ROWLAND

One question you never want to ask a woman who spent five years researching, filming and editing her movie and then another year trying to get distribution is, "So are you like some kind of skateboarding groupie?" Yet three different New Zealand reporters made that blunder with director Helen Stickler when she was in the South Pacific this summer, promoting her debut feature Stoked: The Rise and Fall of Gator.

"I refused to answer them," says Stickler, who by the way is not and never has been a pro-ho. "I just think it's so retarded to be asked that question because it's like, ‘Um, I'm actually a professional filmmaker.'"

She's also a very determined and thorough filmmaker. Stoked is a tightly focused documentary that looks at Mark "Gator" Rogowski's demise from an '80s skateboarding icon to a convicted felon in the '90s. It's been over 10 years since he confessed to the brutal murder of Jessica Bergsten, but the case has remained a source of speculation on and off the vert ramps he once ruled.

"The stories ranged from him being a cocaine fiend who killed his girlfriend, which was a confused cross-over with the O.J. Simpson story, which happened a few years later," says Stickler. "And then I heard that it was a kinky sex act gone wrong, which was a holdover from the preppy murder at Central Park, which happened a few years earlier. So I became interested in not only finding out what actually happened but also why he did it, because he was also such a super talented and incredibly influential person in this world."

Shredding through personalities

Stickler's search for answers started in '97, when the New Yorker flew to California for a series of off-camera pre-interviews at the state pen. She remembers her opinion of Gator would change on a reactionary basis, ranging from sympathetic to his various borderline personality disorders to being creeped out by his narcissism.

"At times he could be really really funny and charming, light hearted and all goofy," she says. "Other times he could be withdrawn and depressed and bitter. It was like ‘Gee, I wonder what kind of mood he'll be in today.' He's consistent in his inconsistencies. So interestingly enough, at the end of the film I still had one big question mark."

Her view of him is effectively reflected in the movie. Through taped phone conversations with Gator, home video footage and interviews with members of his Vision Street Wear posse, we see that he definitely had a serious identity crisis for most of his life. Throughout the film, Stickler explores the following contributing factors to his homicidal tendencies: being washed up at the age of 24, a severe allergy to alcohol and undiagnosed mental illnesses.

Dogged by competition

Stickler also examines how Gator became one of the first sponsored boarders to achieve rock star status and how his high profile cocky attitude paved the way for other celebrity riders. But despite centring her film around his role in this specific era, Stickler couldn't avoid comparisons with another skateboarding doc.

During pre-production, word of her extensive research of the former Thrasher pinup boy reached Spin magazine. They hired her to fact check an article about the boarding lords of Dogtown. It was there she first heard a rumour that the story of the '70s Zephyr skating team was being optioned for a movie. Stacy Peralta, a former pro himself, ended up directing the hugely successful Dogtown and Z-Boys. At first, Stickler wasn't worried about how the simultaneous release of a film backed by Vans and narrated by Sean Penn would affect Stoked.

"I thought it was cool," she recalls, "but it wasn't what we were doing. But when we tried to get it into Sundance, I knew we were really in trouble."

In fact, a competing film about revolutionary shredders as well as the onslaught of 9/11 docs essentially squeezed Stoked out of the 2002 festival circuit.

"It was scary," she says about sitting on her critically acclaimed movie until January 2003. "I had to live off my credit cards for another year and that was difficult. In the end, it did all work out but I can't really say that 2002 was the best year for me."

Stoked: The Rise and Fall of Gator opens,
Friday, Aug. 27 at Cinéma du Parc

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