Stay on Board: The Leo Baker Story

We headed up to Hollywood last night to Outfest’s LGBTQ+ Film Festival to catch the premiere of STAY ON BOARD: THE LEO BAKER STORY. So many skateboarders and people involved in skateboarding came out to support Leo and see this beautiful film, We ran into Poppy Starr Olsen, Hannah Tallman, Nora Vasconcellos, Julie and Quinne Daniels, Brian Anderson, Lisa Whitaker of Meow Skateboards, Heidi Lemmon from the Skatepark Association, and many, many more.

The film follows pro street skater Leo Baker over a crucial four-year period of his life, but with the help of Leo’s mom, Donna Baker, who saved everything since the start of his skateboarding career, the story goes back much further.

As you may remember, Leo was originally part of the USA National Team headed for the 2020 Olympics but later quietly resigned and gave up his quest to skateboard in the Olympics for Team USA.

This film sheds light on why that decision played a huge part in Leo being true to himself and living an authentic life. Stay on Board chronicles Leo’s journey balancing the gendered world of sports, transition, society, and skate culture.

Q&A after the film with Directors Nicola Marsh, Giovanni Reda, Leo Baker, and editor Sasha Perry

Directed by Nicola Marsh and Giovanni Reda. The film is from executive producers Drew Barrymore, Alex Schmider (Director of Transgender Representation at GLAAD), Ember Truesdell, Marisa Clifford, and Thomas Benski. Edited by Sasha Perry, Lauren Saffa.

Streaming on Netflix on August 11 - don’t miss it!

Tonight is the premier of the new CW TV show, NAOMI, and we have to say, this show is definitely worth watching!

Below is everything you need to know.

From Oscar® nominee/Emmy® winner Ava DuVernay and Jill Blankenship (“Arrow”), and starring Kaci Walfall (“Army Wives,” “Power,” “The Lion King” on Broadway) in the title role, the DC drama NAOMI follows the journey of a cool, confident, comic book–loving teenager as she pursues her hidden destiny.

When a supernatural event shakes her hometown of Port Oswego to the core, Naomi (Kaci Walfall) sets out to uncover its origins, with a little help from her fiercely loyal best friend Annabelle (Mary-Charles Jones, “Kevin Can Wait”). She also has the support of her adoptive, doting parents, veteran military officer Greg (Barry Watson, “7th Heaven,” “The Loudest Voice”) and linguistics teacher Jennifer (Mouzam Makkar, “The Fix”). After an encounter with Zumbado (Cranston Johnson, “Filthy Rich”), the mysterious owner of a used car lot, leaves her shaken, Naomi turns to tattoo parlor owner Dee (Alexander Wraith, “Orange Is the New Black”), who becomes her reluctant mentor. While unfolding the mystery about herself, Naomi also effortlessly navigates her high school friendships with kids on the military base as well as well as local townies, including ex-boyfriend and high school jock Nathan (Daniel Puig); Annabelle’s longtime, loyal boyfriend Jacob (Aidan Gemme); proud “townie” Anthony (Will Meyers, “Bad Education”); and fellow comic book enthusiast Lourdes (Camila Moreno), who works in a vintage collectible shop. As Naomi journeys to the heights of the Multiverse in search of answers, what she discovers will challenge everything we believe about our heroes.

 And she SKATEBOARDS!

Based on the characters from DC, NAOMI is written and executive produced by Ava DuVernay and Jill Blankenship (“Arrow”), and executive produced Paul Garnes of ARRAY Filmworks. Amanda Marsalis (“Echo Park,” “Queen Sugar”) directed and co-executive produced the pilot episode. The series is from ARRAY Filmworks in association with Warner Bros. Television.