Documentary - No Comply

In August 2020, we premiered the No Comply short documentary by filmmaker Bibbi Abruzzini on our website. We received requests of people who missed the screening and decided to make the video available on our Morocco project page.

"No comply" is an old school skate trick, but also the dictum of a group of skateboarders in Morocco defying gender and social norms. Being a skateboarder in Morocco draws attention, especially if you are a woman. Eyes and mouths often follow you as you ride. Sometimes full of wonderment, other times in disapproval. Yet, what used to be an underground sport just a couple of years ago, is rising to the surface.

In Taghazout, in southwestern Morocco, the new generation breaths and talks skateboarding. In this small fishing village, one of the country's first skate parks was built in 2017 with the support of Make Life Skate Life, forever altering its social landscape. Teenagers from across Morocco created a community around this subculture.

"No Comply" is the result of a summer spent camping with them at the rim of the skatepark. It is the outcome of the comradeship characterizing this peculiar cluster of youngsters who have decided to reclaim both mental and physical public spaces. Through skateboarding they are questioning their collective and personal identities. They made themselves visible, building bridges across gender and cultural traditions, experimenting with communal living.

As written on one of their skateboards, skateboarding is "cheaper than therapy", this is their way of going deeper into themselves and into what it means to be a Moroccan today.