about 12

Juvenile malice! Inventiveness on the skateboard! Preambles of many trends in current skate culture! These are the qualifications that founded the reputation of a tight group of twelve friends that called themselves the Fret Click – a name which origins are still covered in fog… or smoke?!

Hardcore members Woei, Skelter, Dannes, Silhouet, Rerun, Vrekje, Geoff, Paul, Merijn, Spike, Cois and Phin spent their weekends at self-acclaimed skateboard spots like the RAI in Amsterdam and the Weena in Rotterdam. They falsified train tickets, slept in the streets, and arrived fashionably late on skateboard competitions.

Their legendary status has perpetuated through the Nike SB Zoom Air FC that was dedicated to the Fret Click, an honour that is usually limited to sports heroes like Michael Jordan and skateboard heroes like Mike Carroll (who had his own Vans shoe), and also through this documentary film.

In a fast, humorous and also moving way, debuting director Gyz La Rivière documented the Frets in their prime and current activities. Although persistent in staying young, adult life gets a hold on almost all of them… but heck… growing up is not a crime.

Approx. 50 minutes
Ratio 16:9 / Color
Audio: Dutch
English Subtitles

about Gyz La Rivière

Gyz La Rivière (1976, Rotterdam) is an artist, filmmaker, researcher and writer. Art started playing a role in his life when he began skateboarding in 1987. Skateboarding opened the door to a whole new world for him.

He gets inspiration – besides from his childhood toys – out of the enormous amounts of images, infographics, logos and icons that reach our perception through media culture.

Gyz La Rivière arranges time like a visual archivist. By extracting images and objects from their original context and arranging them in a new, autonomous one, he becomes the master of his own universe.

Gyz La Rivière studied fashion design at the Willem de Kooning Academy. In 2000, he graduated as the first student in the history of his school without a collection. In 2002, he was awarded the Rotterdam Maaskant Prize. In 2013, he directed the film Rotterdam 2040 and in 2020 the film New Neapolis. In 2011, he received ‘The Praise of Folly’ Honorary Pin from the Comité Erasmus and in early 2013 he won the Dolf Henkes Prize for iconic Rotterdam-based artists. Recently he published Rome’dam (2016) and New Neapolis – No Structure (2017), his tenth and eleventh publication.

starring

  • woei Woei Tjin (Woei) has been walkin’ around a lot and now has his own succesful sneakerstore. He lives in Rotterdam.
  • skelter Pieter Janssen (Skelter) is now called Parra and is a famous illustrator. He lives in Amsterdam.
  • dannes Dennis Verschoor (Dannes) did make it to his job interview and is working as a cook in Rotterdam.
  • silhouet Jermain Ostiana (Silhouet) is politically active as a writer. He's been living in Curaçao for more than 10 years now.
  • rerun Gyz La Rivière (Rerun) is a visual artist. He will always be a ‘Rotterdammer’.
  • vrekje Maurice Verburg (Vrekje) has his own filmproduction company called Stoopid Mouse Productions. He lives in Rotterdam.
  • geoff Geoffrey Griffith (Geoff) runs ‘Light’, his own skateboard brand and he's a goldsmith. He will always be an ‘Amsterdammer’.
  • paul Paul Kooijman (Paul) works in a tattoo shop and lives in Beverwijk.
  • merijn Merijn Cool (Merijn) is ‘in between jobs’. He lives in Leiderdorp.
  • spike Mike De Geus (Spike) died on the 31st of December 1999. Rest in peace.
  • cois François Verkerk (Cois) lives in Paris now, making it as a notorious fashion model.
  • phin Phineas Peters (Phin) has a lamp factory. He's married and has a baby (Mineas). He lives in Nijmegen.

also starring

Mandy de Geus
Mike's sister
Lies voor de Poorte
Mike's mother
Peter Lee
lost Fret Click member
Alexander Hasbach
lost Fret Click member
Snerrol
very lost Fret Click member
Clyde Semmoh
former pro skateboarder for Alva
Dirk Winkelman
former pro skateboarder for Santa Cruz
Michel Hoffstaetter
founder Left skateboardshop
Robert Rosenau
worked for Sean Cliver & John Keester at Powell Peralta in the summer of 1990
Marcel Appelman
Appel – Chief Skateboarding Officer Rodolfo's in the nineties
extra mysterious skaters
...
David Tjin
Woei's little brother
Alex O.
Dutch skateboard legend