Hesh Monkeys is a snapshot of my friends and I's journey through childhood/adolescence and how skateboarding impacted that process. I picked up my first skateboard when I was ten years old and it has been an undeniable and monumental influence ever since. This 'Skate Doc' is my attempt at depicting this influence for myself and my close friends, while simultaneously featuring our collective creative talents on the board. 'Hesh Monkeys' features myself (Ben Corbitt), Pat Mitchell, and Mike Rouleau, and also guest features Nick Pimentel and Sean Macnamara. All the skateboarding featured in this documentary was filmed in my home state of Connecticut and highlights CT skaters exclusively.
In addition to featuring the skateboarding of all local CT skaters, 'Hesh Monkeys' also features music exclusively from CT musicians and artists. I wrote, performed, and recorded the majority of the music heard in the film. In addition to my original music, I had the help of: Adam Vein's (Atman), Fred Guadalupe (Sly and The Street Beat), Phil Lord/Kris Lane/Mark Dunlap (Mt. Meridian), Josh Tedeschi (youmebeartrap/The Ghost Is Alive and Well), and Jon Scibelli (Wooden Computers/The Ghost Is Alive and Well).
The art of skateboarding fuses the pure physicality of the sport with the raw creative process/spirit, thus giving you an incredibly unique and captivatingly fresh audio/visual experience. I hope this film gives you that sense and adds it's tiny footprint to the larger collective archive of skate filmography that has so obviously impacted my life. Cheers to this moment in time and to all the skateboarders/artists/friends who helped make this project what it is. Happy Skateboarding.