UK born, Amsterdam-based Al Lewis directs How To Be A Roll Model, a documentary about Amsterdam’s youngest girls' skate crew. The film is an ode to freedom, friendship and straight up badass female power following a group of 8-14 year olds through the skatepark, getting a glimpse into their lives. They fall, they goof around, they land tricks. Everything you would expect from your regular skate video. Except for a few things.

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When Mérida Miller, the girl's coach and founder of the Dutch non-profit Project Fearless – after-school activities for girls in Amsterdam, with a focus on bravery, leadership and community impact – noticed that she couldn’t find any trick tutorials led by women to send the girls during lockdown, she decided to put together a crew and make a film for the girls, with the girls. So the next time a girl or non-binary youth was looking for a skate film, they’d find someone who looks like them with an invitation to the skate park.

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The team behind this film say, 'a group of girls 9-14 skating is also a group of future women owning themselves and taking up spaces that socially were never given to them – a lesson that lots of women weren’t lucky enough to learn at a young age. A group of girls fearlessly rolling down ramps twice their size is pretty badass, and knowing that they aren’t afraid of stepping into a skatepark is both an inspiration and an invitation for others to do the same. A group of girls feeling free and happy, supporting each other, and encouraging others to join them is everything that is right, and definitely a roll model to every female and non-female identifying human out there.'

Al Lewis: “Growing up as a self confessed tomboy, I wished for an initiative like this when I was young. I’d never really filmed with kids before and was a bit nervous about how they’d be as contributors, but meeting the girls for the first time, I was bowled over by their energy, kindness and their willingness to learn. It was so much fun to make because of this and their open honesty and (at times hilarious) view on the world. I’m really pleased we managed to make a film that captures the bubble the girls feel in when they’re skating.  Aesthetically I wanted the video to be a nod to the DIY culture of skate films, with the girls being given cameras themselves and shooting each other. I wanted to create a world where the kids were their own narrators autonomous, without parents and badass."