Dan Buyanovsky.

How do you tell an Olympic story without being cliché?

For me, it was by discovering a would-be first-time competitor who didn’t grow up with Olympic aspirations, or even lofty ideas of seeing the world beyond her suburban community. But Samarria Brevard fostered her skating talents and rode them to great heights, becoming the first black woman to medal at the X Games en route to qualifying for the USA Skateboarding National Team.

When the opportunity presented itself to shoot with Samarria in her hometown of Riverside, California, I assembled a small team and we self-produced a mini-documentary, capturing her world before it changed forever.

Cultured Magazine generously premiered the film as its first-ever piece of sports content, then Skateism and Transworld SKATEboarding picked it up, too. Samarria’s 2020 dreams may have been deferred, but here’s looking ahead to 2021.

Director: Dan Buyanovsky

DP: Mikul Eriksson

AC: Celeste Barbosa

Edit: Andrew Moorehead + Dan Buyanovsky

Thanks: Yulin Olliver, Playback Digital, Aether Films