Photos by Toby Angel.
Interview by Zach Moeller.
Whistle is a video out of the Washington, DC area by Eddie Gutierrez, aka Beltway. Eddie sat down with us to discuss some of the experiences from filming for the project, as well as to provide some insight in how he balances life with producing subsequent videos. Photos from the making of this video are provided by Toby Angel. Watch Beltway’s Whistle video here.
What’s up Eddie? How was the premiere for the video?
It went smooth! Great turn out last night at the Frederick, MD premiere. I also had an amazing turn out at last week’s Washington, DC premiere. Brought out a screen, speaker and projector that I borrowed from Brent at Embark Skateshop to “Malcom X”, a pretty rad empty bowl spot in the middle of the city. Never done an outdoor premiere in the city so that was really cool.
How much time did you spend filming Whistle?
We dropped our last video Banquet about 5 months ago back in October.
Do you feel like you can breathe a little bit once you put something out, or do you immediately start thinking about the next video you want to make?
I would say I can finally breathe now that the editing part is done and over with. That to me is the most tedious part of putting a video together, the filming and skating is the best part.
How do you manage to put a video out every year? Do work and life ever get in the way?
I only have one day out of the week to film and skate. I work full time Mon-Fri. Usually Sundays is the skate day and for the most part, it’s a pretty productive day.
What made working on Whistle different from previous projects you’ve filmed?
We used to travel a lot and try to hit as many spots outside Washington, DC that don’t get much love but for this one we just stayed local and didn’t do much traveling.
Is it difficult to gather this many homies together to be a part of a project like this or does it happen pretty organically?
Usually I hit up a handful of people to skate with, and by the end of the day we have a big squad, three cars or more driving around from spot to spot.
Was there one person in particular who was the most fun to work with while filming Whistle?
I’d say Pooch. His determination to get a clip is infectious. His energy gets me hyped to be out there with him trying to get footage.
Any wild stories or situations you found yourself in during the filming process?
A handful of us were skating into a bank at this indoor, rainy day spot and a super-citizen started yelling at us, “Is this your private skatepark?? People live here!” He then started getting up in Eric Gouldman’s face being super confrontational and then David Salazar started yelling at him to back the fuck up. After some more yelling he runs after David who is on his board skating off and shoves him into a wall and runs off cause he realized he just assaulted someone over skateboarding in a public place.
Who are some of the younger homies out of the DMV that people should keep an eye out for?
Gabe Amaya is probably the youngest dude I film with and he’s been fucking shit up lately. Keep an eye out for him.
Run us through a normal day filming in the streets.
Well, usually we meet up downtown around 9 AM, grab some açaí bowls up in Adams Morgan at Bolt n Jolt, warm up at Pulaski or the revamped Shaw skatepark then start moving around the city, sometimes checking out new spots or just revisiting old spots. On most occasions somebody will have a trick in mind at a certain spot so we try and bang those out. Most spots are usually bust free on Sundays so that helps. We wrap the filming session with good food, good drinks and good laughs.
What’s next?
Hopefully my health allows me to keep on keeping on with filming and skating. I suffer from Lupus, an autoimmune disorder that causes lots of discomfort and pain. It’s been managed well these past few years with the help from my doctors so I think I will be skating and filming with the homies until I cannot physically do it anymore.
