With the backdrop of the closure of the Tower Ballroom in 2017, this documentary steers you through the power of community in roller skating. While watching ‘Rolling at the Tower’, you are guided by the meshing of lighthearted interview discussions, skating montages and Simone Word Smith poetry. This encapsulating arrangement helps show the variety that roller skating has, utilising people's voices to traverse history, culture, and expression, as it is all wrapped up in a sense of community.

Through these interviews led by Empress, you are able to dive past the act of skating in and of itself, to see the freedom that it has given to these individuals. Whether these participants prefer listening to jungle or soul music, whether they dance as they skate or chop, whether they have been at it for 20 years or 1, there is something that connects them all. The freedom to express themselves.

One experienced skater said, ‘‘You’ve got to fall to learn”. The Tower Ballroom demolished means that there are now limited areas people can skate in. The Tower Ballroom wasn’t just a space to have fun and enjoy a hobby but was a place where people from different backgrounds, culturally or geographically, could come together and share their love for this sport. This documentary's creation advocates the significance of skating, advertising not only the desire but the need to have a space like the Ballroom again. Therefore, this film illustrates the hope and aspiration that future generations will have their own space where they can ‘fall’ and’ learn’.

Overall, in the midst of, what seems, an ever dividing and hostile world, this forty-minute documentary invites us all to appreciate the simple, yet impactful wonders of community. It was an enjoyable watch and I'd recommend it, whether you are interested in roller skating or just want to feel a bit wholesome.