7hillspark is a social skateboarding initiative based in Amman, Jordan. 7Hills creates an open, democratic environment for everyone in the city of Amman struggling with social barriers. It aims to give all children, youth and parents a safe, public space to skateboard, socialize, grow and learn. The project organizes girls and refugee classes in their skatepark and hosts about 200 kids every week.

ahlan wa sahlan

2018 my mate, Matthias, volunteered at 7hills and got in contact with Kas Wauters, one of the lead organizers of the 7hills project. We made a plan to go to jordan with a crew of skateboarders from germany and shoot street skateboarding together with the local skateboarders. One year later, our crew explored the streets led by Kas together with the Jordan homies. Matthias and I went back a second time in the beginning of 2020 because the local jordan kids are showing immense talent and we wanted to capture some more footage. Within these trips we skated the two biggest cities Amman and Aqaba, went into the desert and got drunk with bedouins. For most of the crew it was a really unexpected journey, especially because some had never visited countries in the vicinity of Jordan. One thing is for sure, there is a lot of prejudice against countries within the middle east. What we hear or see about the middle east on media has most of a time a negative undertone; warzone, terror, oppression, etc. However, it is safe to say, that prejudice was overcome on the trip especially, because everybody we met on the journey was super welcoming (ahlan wa sahlan = welcome), hospitable, friendly and humble, which is a big part of the culture over there. On our last day of the first trip the entire crew of 8 people was invited to a family dinner of one of the Jordan skaters together with kas, the volunteers and the local skaters. Which parents would invite 15 dirty skate rats for a dinner in europe?

Besides, being one of the first european street skate videos from Amman, Jordan, the film tries to illustrate the loving and warmhearted people of Amman and their environment and immediate connection to strangers.

Video by Jonas Strecke and Oskar Ong

This yet unfinished masterpiece does not need more words then this: Reserve your boat ticket to Brijuni island and witness skating you have never seen before done by Jan Kliewer and Michael Mackrodt and shot by Mr. clean and lovely Guillaume Perimony.

Shit pie happened spontaneously when Serbian Goverment, due to Covid, introduced state of emergency and imposed police hour. This led to empty streets and various untouched spots, around our home, that were waiting to be abused.

Hana who is not a skateboarder, but is a filmmaker, got seriously obsessed with looking for spots, and began to film skateboarding through her own eyes. Together we made a delicious pie out of the shit that we were all floating in.

Enjoy the dessert!

Hey Nikola,
this is the first Version,
Sound Balance ist a bit heavy during the last part…
Can try to fix it… or is it fine like that..
Check it out and let me know…
Have also a few Analog photos of the Trip which i can send to you..
Thanks a lot

Greets Valle

“As many others can relate, the lockdown fucked up our plans for international trips. We only managed to fly to Cyprus in February for a weekend. For better or for worse, our next tour to Portugal was canceled and we stayed in Bulgaria until the end of summer.
That didn’t stop us from filming though. With fewer people in the streets, the lockdown made many overcrowded spots skatable. For 6 months we stacked more footage than we usually do for a year. The main reason for this was Yavor Ski who was always on a mission for new footage.”

We got our friend Vantte Lindevall screening again at Vladimir with his new video Utopia. Be sure not to miss it in the Kasarna backyard in Fažana on Saturday 26^th, we won’t for sure!

This is a story about the fleetingness of life in a world, where words don’t matter.