'Wassup Rockers' A Revealing Look at Latino Punk Skateboarders

SAN FRANCISCO--There are two things that are immediately fantastic about "Wassup Rockers," Larry Clark's new day-in-the-life film about Latino hybrid punk rock skater boys growing up in South Central Los Angeles. First, the L.A. that the kids inhabit, and that is depicted in the film -- with its noisy, lonely mid-freeway metro stations, lengthy bus rides and shabby playgrounds -- is the L.A. that most working class Angelinos live in and few others see. "I had never seen this," Clark says.

Second, the boys defy every stereotype that's ever been slapped onto Latino kids in the United States (none in the group are Mexican, for example, though the white and black characters in the film repeatedly and mistakenly call them that).

At a pre-screening in San Francisco I was surrounded by a mostly middle-aged, white, male group that was utterly bemused by the Guatemalan/Salvadorean punk rocker skate-or-die madness -- and poignancy -- that Clark's lens brought forth. Clark -- well known for delving into the inner lives of teens, most notably in his 1995 debut film "Kids" -- had a similar reaction when he first met the Latino skaters who later played themselves in his film.

Anyone who still clings to the idea that Latino males in the United States are either Cuban salseros, Central American migrant workers or baggy-pant wearing, hip-hop listening, gun-toting and gang-affiliated teens will be surprised by the seven boys in the film. They wear skin-tight jeans and ironic, slinky band shirts, keep their hair long and take their boards everywhere. They play in a metal band and practice in one parents' bedroom with a sheet propped up as a divider. They drink here and there, but don't smoke or inject anything.

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