Directed by Paris-based filmmaker Joaquim Bayle, PRECIOUS builds on Carhartt WIP’s last full-length skate project INSIDE OUT, which was released in 2022.
With a running time of roughly 15 minutes, this installment explores skateboarding in the United States, situating the Carhartt WIP skate team amidst the sprawling suburbs of Los Angeles and New York’s sleepless, frenetic streets.
The name of the project derives from the delicate yet grueling process of shooting tricks on film. “Now that I understand skateboarding a little more, I wanted to pay tribute to its subversive form, its poetic form,” says Bayle of the feature, describing a “precious feeling I had when I started skateboarding and which, as I have gotten older, I've tended to forget.”
In encapsulating this, he employs a multisensory approach. Warm, gauzy footage is punctuated by shutter clicks, and black and white photography. Quiet moments of reflection are interrupted by the sound of wheels on concrete. Soft spoken words drift in and out of a soundtrack of sludge metal and synthwave.
Renowned filmer Romain Batard returns, joined by Trevor Owens and Ryan Mettz, to document exceptional skate parts executed by riders such as Noah Mahieu, Eddie Cernicky, Max Palmer, Riley Pavey, Ibu Sanyang, Willow Voges Fernandes, and Cambryan Sedlick, amongst others.