‘Through My Board’ film screens Sunday at San Pedro fest
The announcement reports that a new documentary directed by Dan Eason screens on November 15, 2026, at 5:00 PM at Starlight Terrace Cinemas as part of the San Pedro International Film Festival in Los Angeles. Through My Board centers on Paul Johnson, a Black Deaf skater, and his 33-year connection to Portland’s Burnside Skatepark. The film follows Johnson alongside the park’s longtime skaters as they confront aging, addiction, and shifts inside skate culture. The announcement describes how Through My Board takes viewers into Paul’s world and the lives of the park’s OG skaters as they face aging, addiction, and the challenges within skate culture. Director Dan Eason, a skater from the Cincinnati Tri-State area who moved to Portland two decades after the first wave of his peers descended upon Burnside in the early 1990s, directed and produced the film.
Paul Johnson began skateboarding near age 10 after following his cousin to a local shop. Without an interpreter present, he learned by watching others at Burnside and similar parks. Johnson has described the activity as teaching persistence and patience. He compared studying tricks to homework, noting that the same focused repetition also supported his schoolwork. Over three decades the park supplied both a physical outlet and a consistent social setting.
Burnside Skatepark functions as an informal gathering place built and maintained by skaters. Johnson has stated that the people there became his family and accepted participants of varying abilities and backgrounds. The film records conversations among the park’s original skaters, showing how the site continues to serve as a stable reference point amid personal and cultural changes. Johnson expects the documentary to convey that sense of belonging to viewers outside the skate community.
Director Dan Eason, originally from the Cincinnati Tri-State area, moved to Portland roughly two decades after the first wave of skaters arrived at Burnside in the early 1990s. His prior credits include feature films such as Eagle Eye, The Angriest Man in Brooklyn, I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore, and The Night Always Comes, along with television work on Grimm, The OA, and Everything Sucks!. Eason has said that skateboarding has remained grounding for him because it fosters direct community contact away from screens, and he has described Johnson and the Burnside group as notably authentic.
Through My Board records the collaboration between Eason and interpreters during production. Johnson has expressed hope that audiences will see “something never seen before about deaf culture” through these interactions. The film avoids simplified representations and instead shows practical communication methods used on site. Eason has stated that he wanted to illustrate community arising from diversity, altruism, and unity without reducing those qualities to statements of intent.
The documentary received the Best Documentary Feature award at the Chelsea Film Festival. With skateboarding scheduled for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, the film places attention on everyday participants and the longstanding social structures that support the sport. Johnson and Eason both indicate that the work aims to expand recognition of deaf participants within skateboarding while documenting the specific environment at Burnside.
