Naquan Rollings
One of the best things about skate filmer Naquan Rollings is his surname, which is Rollings, and there’s some clever wordplay in there somewhere for sure (there goes Naquan Rollings down the street).
Naquan drew his earliest inspiration from the things he saw growing up in Brooklyn and catching the subway into Manhattan for school. Naquan says he just likes ‘pointing his camera at things,’ but we’d argue that there’s a little more to it than that. He has what they call in the business a ‘good eye,’ meaning he’s seeing frames and angles that most of us miss, and that’s what’s going to eventually land him an Oscar, or whatever the skateboarding equivalent of that is. And then probably an Oscar.
What’s the very first thing you do when you wake up in the morning?
Usually I’ll drink tea because I like tea. It just gets my body ready for the day. Also, I’ll just hit up any homies who skating.
You grew up in Fort Greene. How do you think growing up there influenced where you’re at and what you make today?
Honestly, just growing up Downtown I would always just look out my window and always see something. I could look out my window anytime and there would be something going on. I went to middle school and elementary school in Manhattan, so it made it easier for me to be in the city. Something that my teacher told me was that I was always observant, so I guess that’s something that stuck with me.
What’s one project you’re most proud of?
I’d say my video titled Buss, it’s just one of the videos on my YouTube page. I just really like how it came out.
One of your favourite people to film and why?
I guess I’ll say Christian Henry, I’ll say him because he’s one of my good friends and so it’s already natural when we skate together. We both can see a spot and both get hyped on it and be like, ‘Yo!’ It’s always just a good time skating with Christian.
What was the last thing that you read, saw, or listened to that inspired you?
It’s kind of a hard one, I guess I don’t really know what it takes to get me inspired. I just have to watch a bunch skating and then I get my overall thought of like, what I really wanna see skate-wise. I don’t have anything specific thing or a person that inspires me, I just have an overall perspective on a bunch of things. So I guess something that inspires me is seeing the things that I’m around, and what I notice. Every day is an inspiration.
What person living or dead do you wish was your roommate and why?
I don’t wish anyone was my roommate (laughs).
What do you want to experiment with in your filmmaking in the future?
I just want to stick with skating for now, I love skating. I’ve wanted to film skating for a long time so it’s just sick to be able to do what I do. It would be cool to film a bunch of other random other things, maybe just a bunch of random cool shit… whatever leads me to it, I just like pointing my camera at things.
What’s another talent people might not know you have?
I have a drum set, I don’t play it that much but it’s in my room.
What does the world need more of in 2022?
We need more honest people. That’s what we need.
