Joe Castrucci "Portfolio" - Part 1

When Habitat started in 1999, I was 15 years old. The brand and the people who skated for it meant the world to me, mainly because everything they were doing was happening so close to home. My friends and I would take the train to Philadelphia from the suburbs of PA every weekend and without fail, Josh Kalis, Brian Wenning, Rob Pluhowski and so many others would all be skating at LOVE Park. When "Photosynthesis" was released in 2000, the manner in which I viewed my surroundings was forever changed. I had little interest in filming/editing prior to that orange VHS tape entering my VCR. Then "Mosaic" was released in 2003, and the VX-1000 became the only thing I cared about. What Joe Castrucci did with these videos still influences ever shot I frame to this day. I spent 3 days in Cincinnati filming with Joe and Brennan Conroy, chronicling Habitat's history and visiting some of the notorious Ohio spots from past Workshop productions. I drove back to Philadelphia with hundreds of Alien/Habitat DV tapes, as well as 12,000 feet of 16mm film dating back to the late 90′s. All the film was scanned in HD, and every DV tape was logged, start to finish. After nearly 4 months of editing, I present you with this two part documentary on Joe Castrucci and the deep heritage behind Habitat skateboards.