This weekend watch MTV’s True Life to see how a newcomer handles Skatopia…. lets see how Reality TV meets reality! You weigh in… did they get it right or not?
Skatopia and ‘True Life’RUTLAND — Skatopia is a destination with its share of myths, rumors and reality – all captured in an upcoming episode of MTV’s long-running, Emmy award-winning series “True Life.”
The episode is slated to air on April 9 on MTV and consists of footage shot at last year’s Bowl Bash – an annual weekend of music, skating and tired eyes watching the sun come up over an amphitheatre in Rutland Township.
Skatopia Mastermind Brewce Martin said he’d been in talks with a production company to shoot the episode in 2009 but due to an injury he sustained, the filming was pushed back to Bowl Bash 2010. The film crew was on location at Skatopia for around two weeks in June of last year, again, focusing on the annual bash.
Martin hasn’t seen the finished episode though he says he hopes it captures what he feels several people have missed when it comes to Skatopia by focusing on the sensationalist aspect of the place – a place captured in the documentary “Skatopia: 88 Acres of Anarchy” and within the pages of “Rolling Stone” magazine.
“It’s not just a place to party and 99 percent of the time out here it’s just normal life going on,” Martin said.
Poking fun at what some see as Skatopia stereotypes, Martin said his skating Mecca isn’t full of “poverty-ridden dirt bags” though he admits to attracting a diverse population when it comes to those who make the pilgrimage.
“This is the funny thing, there are all kinds of people here just like when you go to Wal-Mart…you don’t know who you’re going to see,” Martin said.
“True Life” is notorious and celebrated for showing viewers an intimate view of life, reality and the versatility (and often ingenuity) of its narrators. The series began running in 1998 and attempts, according to MTV, to provide a window into the struggles, hopes and dreams of young people – episodes are narrated by its characters and each episode documents the unusual (and often remarkable) circumstances of real individuals.
Skatopia will join a long list of episodes which have examined everything from soldiers returning from Iraq to young people living with tourettes or struggling with food addictions – the topics are endless. As for how Rutland Township’s Skatopia will translate with the MTV audience – if the episode is real, it’ll be classic “True Life.”