VIFF 2012 review: This Ain’t California

This intriguing documentary deals with the cult of skateboarding in the former East Germany, counterpointing its subject matter with an ironic contemporary coda. Although the emphasis is on state repression, a certain rueful fondness for the era is omnipresent, composed equally of love of place—not least because, in theory, it was a place that was impossible to leave—and memories of a time when a little bit of cool got translated instantly into scads of camaraderie and casual sex.