Pray For Me : The Jason Jessee Film

Pray For Me : The Jason Jessee Film (Steve Nemsick & David Rogerson, 2007)

Professionnal skateboarder Jason Jessee is profiled in this 80 minutes documentary that preceded his comeback to a skaboarding sponsorship by Santa Cruz skateboards.

Coming from a Mormon family of South California that liked motorcycles and guns, Jason Jessee became a peculiar character that few people have really understood. Considered by his friends and peers as a clown or a kook, Jessee has passed from 100 000$ earnings in a year skateboarding to a minimum wage job cleaning dishes.

The portrait of his family and childhood is nicely done but too much time is on the fact that he hides himself behind a mask of comedy and extreme behaviors such as Nazi imagery, terrorist slogans, and Jesus freak phrases. Clearly, this is a man that wanted to do things his own way and make people talk about him. Sadly, the documentary almost plays as a joke and only encourages his eccentric side without trying to really scratch the surface and peel off the layers of this obvious shell that Jessee has forged around him to protect him from being hurt.

Another side of Pray For Me that should be improved is the lack of footage of his skateboarding days and the few archives shown. I read on IMDb that the budget was around 100 000$ for the entire documentary and this is probably one of the reasons it was harder to get rights for the archives of his career. However, the whole film feels that the budget was limited and it is almost sad that it feels cheap. There’s one thing when the soundtrack is done with less money and features more underground artists, much like skateboarding videos in general, but when the writing of the screenplay lacks of formal structure and circles around an interesting topic without achieving a complete analysis.

Between two shots of Jessee kidding around in his garage and interviews of his peers and family, Pray For Me : The Jason Jessee Film leaves us with a vague impression of the man and many questions hold in the air regarding the subject of the film and its purpose. As a skateboarder myself I like to know the guy behind the name written on the decks I buy. The Jason Jessee boards are nice skateboards and his graphics have always been considered as popular amongst customers. Apart if you are a real fan of the man or a diehard rabid consumer of everything skateboard I would suggest a rental but as aforementioned, there’s not a lot to learn from this 80 minutes documentary.

Deck of the Week – Santa Cruz’s Gallos by Jason Jessee

This feature is about the most innovative, subversive, original, and artsy graphics in skateboarding. Highlighting new and current decks on the market but also going back in the great catalog that many legendary skaters and companies have put out since the underground debuts of this highly marginalized sport.

For the first time on Le Mot du Cinephiliaque, the new feature consisting of presenting one deck that I want to display and write about.

This week, I’m bringing you my pool deck that I’ve been skating with since this spring; the Santa Cruz Gallos by Jason Jessee. It features a 8.6X32 inches shape with a wheelbase of 15 inches and a proper nose.
Coming from Santa Cruz, one of the most iconic skateboard company, the wide shape is perfect for pool skating or cruising around.

This is a nice compromise between the old shaped decks of the 1980’s and the thin popsicle decks of the 1990’s.

Featuring a violent rooster with blood red and dark grey tones, this is a deck that wants to be destroy by its owner.

Far from being a classic deck, this recent release by Santa Cruz was almost forgotten because many re-issue decks were populating the market at the time it came out. This is however a great deck that I mounted on Independent trucks (139), Bones wheels (58mm), and Amphetamine Ceramic bearings.

What is your perfect pool deck? Did you ever watched the documentary on Jason Jessee Pray for Me: The Jason Jessee Film? If yes, please share if it is worth it I haven’t watched it yet.