Anyone who’s ever been to a roller-skating rink knows such establishments tend to bombard their patrons with rules — rules that dictate the kind of clothes, the kind of wheels, and the kind of moves permitted on the floor.
For kids, it may be easy to assume that these restrictions are designed for everyone’s safety, but in many cases, they actually serve as a coded form of racial discrimination (in much the same way a Pennsylvania golf course kicked out five black women for playing too slowly earlier this week).Now — and not a moment too soon, as once-thriving rinks go bust at a rate of three a month — first-time directors Dyana Winkler and Tina Brown’s deep-dive documentary “United Skates” reveals what these social-gathering places mean to African-Americans, past and present.
Like such trendsetting classics as “Paris Is Burning” and “Rize,” this kaleidoscopically vibrant, essential-viewing survey plunges audiences into a dazzling underground scene,
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