Before watching United Skates, I had maybe an inkling of what the roller skating culture was, my mother talked about roller skating a lot when she was a teenager. But beyond that, I simply thought of it as something fun to do, akin to bowling, or better yet ice-skating. I had no idea how meaningful and impactful the culture really is.

While watching the film, however, I was surprised and in awe at how rich the culture surrounding roller skating was. It was both amazing to see how the Black community was able to express and enjoy themselves through roller skating, and heartbreaking to see how this culture that I was only just finding out about is also on the verge of extinction. The culture itself is a wonderful mixture, of sport and dance set to infectious music that is an inseparable part of it all. Everyone was also so incredibly dedicated to sustaining the culture, going as far as traveling hundreds (if not thousands) of miles to participate in an event.

All of this is at risk though, as more and more roller rinks are being closed across the nation. And of the ones still remaining, many of them are on the brink of closing. This film also came out in 2018, and given the pandemic, I’m sure many more have closed since then. This felt like discovering Notre-Dame for the first time when it was on fire. Let’s just hope that this culture can survive still intact after the damage it has suffered, like the church.