by FilmInk Staff
Gold Coast skateboarder and filmmaker Sarah Huston will present two new films at BLEACH Festival, including a documentary marking ten years of the women’s skateboarding media platform Yeah Girl and a new experimental film in which Huston is set on fire in the name of art.
Presented at HOTA, Home of the Arts, Footnote: A Yeah Girl Retrospective and Rekindle, Rekindle offer two distinct perspectives on skateboarding through documentary and experimental film.
Premiering on 4 October, Footnote: A Yeah Girl Retrospective traces the rise of women and gender-diverse skateboarders over the last decade and the grassroots media platform that became part of a broader shift in skateboarding culture.
Yeah Girl began on the Gold Coast in 2016 as a photo exhibition featuring images of women and gender-diverse skateboarders taken by women and gender-diverse photographers from around the world. The exhibition went on to tour internationally to Copenhagen and Los Angeles before evolving into a global media platform.
Written and directed by filmmaker and Yeah Girl founder, Sarah Huston, Footnote features X Games medalist and skateboarding pioneer Mimi Knoop; artist and former professional skateboarder Louisa Menke; photographer and community organiser Norma Ibarra; sociologist, skateboarder and change-maker Dr Indigo Willing; and Huston.
“I wanted to make Footnote not simply as a celebration of what Yeah Girl achieved, but as an opportunity to spotlight the people who shaped it, honour the pioneers who came before, and give a nod to those who continue to pave the way,” Huston said.
The screening will be followed by a panel discussion featuring Olympic skateboarder Poppy Starr Olsen, Dr Indigo Willing and local skateboarder Tora Waldren, moderated by Sarah Huston.
Huston’s second new work, Rekindle, Rekindle, is an experimental film drawing on their work as a professional stunt performer and their personal relationship with skateboarding.
In the film, Huston is engulfed in flames in a ritual of friction, motion and fire. Through repetition, skateboarding becomes a meditation on destruction and creation, exploring what it means to push the body to its limits, again and again.
The film is shot on Super 8 and features an original score composed by acclaimed Australian sound artist Lawrence English.
BLEACH Festival Artistic Director, Felix Preval said the team were thrilled to be able to include two artistic outcomes from Sarah Huston in this year’s festival.
“Sarah brings a unique combination of talents and interests to their practice as an artist, and it’s wonderful to see those come together in Rekindle, Rekindle — skateboarding, stunt work and experimental filmmaking,” Felix Preval said.
“We’re excited to host the world premiere screening of Footnote: A Yeah Girl Retrospective at the Festival. The documentary beautifully captures a pivotal decade for women’s skating, celebrating the scene’s great champions as artists as well as athletes, and traces the sport’s journey from grassroots culture to global recognition.”
While Footnote looks back at a significant decade in women’s skateboarding, Rekindle, Rekindle is a separate and more personal reflection on Huston’s own relationship with skateboarding.
Both films are produced by Falling Pictures, supported by the EGC Arts Fund and presented by BLEACH Festival and HOTA.
EVENT DETAILS
Footnote: A Yeah Girl Retrospective
World Premiere + Panel Discussion
4 October 2026, 2:30pm
HOTA, Home of the Arts, Gold Coast
Free, registration essential
Rekindle, Rekindle
Film Installation
1–11 October 2026, from 10am daily
HOTA Gallery, Lower Ground Foyer
Free admission
