The change that the world is undergoing is forcing us to reconsider our origins, thus feeling the need of a slow and reflective life. Slow Dance, Fast Wheels is a true story by C41 for Adidas Originals, it is a film of connection and disconnection that aims to celebrate the simple and slower life, a kind of life that today’s youth no longer know how to live. The film was created to celebrate the launch of FORUM 84. Created in 1984 as a forward-thinking basketball sneaker by famed footwear designer Jacques Chassaing, the adidas FORUM has transcended its sporting origins from its inception, building an authentic bond with culture for generations. In addition to its status as a style icon, adidas Originals FORUM also serves as a platform for self-expression, unconventional thinking, and cultural innovation.
These days, in which technology has taken over, we feel the need to quickly connect with the world; while the web which used to be the fastest and most innovative method has now become too slow and unsatisfying. The young people of today, given the lack of human and social contact lived over the last period, need a quick and fluent interchange of ideas. This is a true story that C41 has created for Adidas Originals reflecting on the matter of present in all its facets. It is like a glance at the contemporary that suggests us to look for a slower lifestyle, where slowness stands for the research of a higher standard of living in nature doing sport between friends, in company.
The protagonists of this story are young guys who live in the area of Milano Centrale, a meeting place for connections of many people who share friendships and passions.
Melat, Koffi, Kalkii, Omar, Lorenzo and John are a crew of city kids who are linked together by their passion for skateboarding and who together rediscover the quiet suburbs. In this context, the word periphery wants to indicate a metaphor useful for addressing a discourse about a dimension in which being able to find the time to live slowly, allowing our characters to stay together without stress.
Melat, the protagonist of the story, wants to become a singer and has always experienced the Milano Centrale spot as a place in which meeting with friends, as a location sprinkled with a mood of union that a sport like skateboarding promotes. “Connection is the most powerful tool we have today and it allows us infinite freedoms. At this point it is essential to distinguish which are the faults of the instrument with those which are the faults of those who use the instrument, therefore the faults of the connection from those that are actually the faults of the people who use the connection negatively, in a wrong way. All these mechanisms that have come to form and are growing exponentially of fake news and so on, are all mechanisms due to use of the connection, they are not due to the connection itself because in reality there are many advantages that the connection brings us and that seems to have passed into the background or taken for granted and now this superficial sphere prevails. …”
Koffi is a 19-year old Italian skater of Togolese origins. He lives with his family in the suburbs of Milan. “Human communication, the direct one, is very important even if you argue
and don’t understand each other, you don’t really confront each other…”
Kalki is a 20-year old girl with a passion for photography and drowing. “During the pandemic, the connection was, in my opinion, on the one hand, a fortune and on the other a misfortune. It was a positive thing because in any case, it allowed us to stay in touch with our loved ones, our relatives, our friends, and especially in the workplace and at school. While it was negative on the one hand because we were locked up at home in front of a computer or a phone practically every day and we practically did not live a year and a half of life away from home in which many things could probably happen. Before this situation I never thought that the telephone was a fundamental element in my life and I think that I learned this thing with the MC guys who are guys of various ages, of almost all different nationalities, and who more who less with a very open-minded. They live in the square of MC, they consider it as a home…”
The film’s soundtrack, written by Luca A. Caizzi and Leone with the collaboration of the artist Ze in the Clouds, expresses the thoughts of the boys who recite some excerpts in front of the camera reflecting the mood of the young generation and at the same time that state of mind of the young people to whom C41 wants to speak. Slow Dance, Fast Wheels is a hymn to living in a simple way, without too much drama. “I dance so fast that internet can’t follow me, but i’m sure the worlds needs fewer bloggers and more trees this life isn’t easy at all but what’s better than friends wheels n beeeeer.” A true story of young people who rediscover the pleasure of calmness, of guys who live in the moment among friendly faces and poor connections and who finally manage to give a value to the open spaces and to the slowness of the passing time.
Credits:
PRODUCED BY
@c41.eu
DIRECTED BY
Leone
Creative Direction: L+L (Leone Balduzzi+Luca A. Caizzi)
Director of Photography: Francesca Pavoni
1st AC: Niccolò di Guida
2nd AC: Riccardo Pagano
Drone: Rocco Didio
Editing: Margherita Freyrie
Color Grading: Orash Rahnema
Sound: Lorenzo D’Anniballe
Music Prod: Smider Agency
Composer: Ze in the Clouds
Singer: Melat Emma Kontzialis
Ex Producer: Alice Garbelli
Producer: Beatrice Lebrun
Assistant: Stefano Pagano
Styling: Aurora Zalitieri
Location: Antonio Cilli
Casting: Alice De Santis
Thanks to: Inga Lavarini, Hotel Rio, Michele Prevato, Tiziana Carbellesi, Ilaria Bonfiglioli, Elisa Camerini
Starring: Melat, Koffi, Kalkii, Omar, Lorenzo, John