Produced by Big Al Sevilla and set in the tough streets of the Nation’s Capital, the movie centers on the attempts of a drug cartel to enlist the aid of Neo-nazi skinhead youth, by inciting racial tensions among gangs. One of the defining principles of the hard core punk movement is the notion that, “Sure I’m stupid and dirt poor trailer trash born to loose, but let me just swagger on over and get up in your face and show you just how disgustingly irreverent and anti social I can really get!” This movie is permeated with this cultural logic. It’s that logic that creates some of the problems in the movie, but is also the reason the movie is rife with kenetic energy and right on the edge, where indepdendent film ought to be. The pacing and story continuity gets screwed up on several occasions, do to scenes being stuck in with no relevance, and several critical scenes being left out, common mistakes of filmmakers early in their careers. Still, this film is a worthy addition to any collection, and of interest to anyone with a desire to understand the undercurrent forces which shape a society as big and as complex as the American experience.

Writer-Director, Mike Rohr gets loads of credit for tackling something like this. Highlights of his vision include, a version of the “Gunfight At The OK Corral” set to thundering hardcore, and a series of fight scenes that look like they were choreographed after Mike watched a couple of knife fights in the parking lot of some underground bar. Unlike the wimpy dance scenes from Hollywood martial arts movies, these guys look like they know what a street fight is like. The simplistic realism of the violence is downright disturbing. “Skin” could be discharged as a fairly well done under budgeted action flick, except, the movie brings with it a multi layered social conscience. The story has multiple themes that run congruently. They are: pissed off white kids are just as hazardous as pissed off black, brown, green or purple kids, and maybe more so, because nobody cares because they are white. Hate young, die young. Anyone who gets suckered into any kind of political or religious ideology is open for exploitation. With all that’s happening today, you think that would be obvious, yet there seems to be evidence that not everyone’s getting the message. And finally, the underclass has a truely diferent take on logic than does mainstream American thought, best illustrated by the movie’s best line, “Better to be judged by 12 than carried by 6!”

Many of the actors came from the societies they represent. Yet, the level of presentation is extremely good, especially by Adam Rutland, who strikes and impressive presence on the screen. Unfortunately, Adam passed after the completion of the film.

Neither Rohr nor Al Sevilla are sure exactly how long it took to create the movie, nor exactly how much it cost, though Rohr confessed in April of 2005, 11 years after it’s appearance on the underground festival circuit, that he was still paying for it. All things considered, as you look at the work some 15 years later, it is an amazing work, especially when looking at the self serving trash put forth as indie film these days. American Skin is what underground filmmaking is all about. Bold, aggressive, and seat of the pants filmmaking, with a message that knows one in commercial media would dare to make. As Big Al related to me over Chinese food in Arlington, Virginia...making these things is absolutely crazy...but someone has to do it. So be it. Mike and Al siezed their moment to stand tall in front of the Constitution.