Growing up in Northern California, Jacob Rosenberg developed his passion for video and film as a skateboarder in the early 1990s, making acclaimed videos for Plan B Skateboards under the mentorship of the late founder Mike Ternasky. Upon his graduation from Emerson College, Rosenberg began his professional career directing music videos, short films, and commercials where he has directed and produced talent names such as LeBron James, Quincy Jones, Snoop Dogg, and Latto. Rosenberg served for a decade as a partner at the independent studio Bandito Brothers, spearheading forward-thinking digital workflows as their CTO and in-house director. He contributed expertise to productions such as Avatar and Act of Valor as well as numerous documentaries including Shine A Light and S.O.P..

In 2012, Rosenberg’s directorial debut, Waiting for Lightning, premiered at SXSW, going on to be released by Samuel Goldwyn Films. The documentary feature painted an intimate portrait of childhood friend and skateboard legend Danny Way, who in 2005 attempted to jump the Great Wall of China on a skateboard.

With a penchant for telling deeply human stories, Rosenberg’s documentaries range on subjects from land speed racing to skateboarding, photography, technology, and the world of magician Franco Pascali. His award-winning broadcast work has included campaigns for Ford, INFINITI, HUMMER, NBA, MLB, Royal Caribbean, Burger King, Beats, Advil, Intel, and countless others. Rosenberg’s latest works include co-curating a first-of-its-kind museum exhibit on the emergence of skateboard videos in the 1990s at The Museum of the Moving Image in Queens, as well as his first photo book RIGHT BEFORE MY EYES, documenting a decade of Bay Area hip-hop and skate culture. The book focuses on Jacob’s story, coming up as a filmmaker for Plan B and then a photographer for the rap collective Hieroglyphics—which culminated in filming, editing, and directing their first group music video “You Never Knew” in 1998.

Topics Discussed In This Episode:

• Jacob speaks about his new book, Right Before My Eyes (00:09:32)
• Magic, childlike curiosity, and the film “The Red Balloon” (00:13:19)
• Jacob shares his experience creating “Waiting For Lightning,” a documentary about skateboarder Danny Way (00:18:51)
• Jacob reflects on how creative pursuits helped him navigate childhood trauma (00:22:08)
• Finding acceptance through skateboarding (00:29:52)
• Jacob opens up about childhood trauma and how it fostered his ability to empathize with others (00:38:14)
• Yoshino shares how teaching boxing to kids highlights their natural embrace of diversity, connecting it to skateboarding’s cultural inclusivity (00:40:42)
• Jacob reflects on how childhood influences like Star Wars and Public Enemy shaped his creativity (00:52:09)
• Jacob recounts meeting his mentor, Mike Ternasky (Co-Founder of Plan B and H Street Skateboards), at a skate camp in 1988 (00:58:04)
• How authenticity and small acts of kindness create meaningful connections (01:04:56)
• The conversation explores empathy as a counter to divisiveness in politics and mass media (01:07:46)
• Yoshino reflects on experiencing racism while traveling (01:18:15)
• Jacob discusses creating Plan B’s iconic skate videos: Questionable, Virtual Reality, and Secondhand Smoke (01:21:54)
• Jacob highlights a museum exhibit celebrating 1990s skateboarding videos as cultural and documentary art (01:32:10)
• Joan Scheckel and her embodied storytelling technique (01:35:36)
• The importance of open-hearted living and artists staying fearlessly present during turbulent times (01:41:53)
• Yoshino and Jacob admire the subtle storytelling in Wim Wenders’ Perfect Days (01:51:07)
• Jacob discusses his book Right Before My Eyes, chronicling his growth as a filmmaker and skateboarding’s evolution from 1988 to 1998 (01:58:28)
• Yoshino and Jacob explore how modern technology overwhelms and disconnects, emphasizing slowing down and finding grounding in nature and analog experiences (02:03:57)

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Joshua Hagler (b. 1979, Mountain Home AFB, Idaho) is a first-generation graduate with a graphic design degree from The University of Arizona. A 2018 grant recipient of the Roswell Artist in Residence Program, Hagler has since made New Mexico his permanent home. Currently, he lives with his wife and daughter in the high desert village of Placitas at the foot of the Sandia Mountains.

In recent years, his practice has been guided by an approach he calls Nihil, a set of nine self-imposed principles that have grown out of solitary excursions throughout the state. These principles determine all aspects of the work from its imagery and process to the media and objects comprising it. Concept and meaning, as such, naturally unfold out of synchronistic experiences occurring over time.

Topics Discussed In This Episode: 

• Romanticizing solitude and isolation (00:05:53)
• Joshua describes his meditative practice (00:09:06)
• Yoshino reflects on how names and labels impact our perception of reality (00:14:15)
• Joshua discusses his project “Nihil” (00:17:24)
• How Joshua’s personal grief has shaped his work (00:23:28)
• Joshua and Yoshino share personal anecdotes and experiences with encountering spiritual signs (00:29:41)
• Yoshino discusses the challenge of describing spiritual experiences. Joshua adds that people often exist in a projected reality, shaped by narratives and labels, which sometimes diverge from actual reality (00:46:21)
• Exploring ideas around purpose (00:51:23)
• The danger of equating success with self-worth (00:58:39)
• Joshua shares his experiences about how his project “Nihil” began and ended (01:17:45)
• Yoshino uses the metaphor of the “Easter egg” in video games to explain an artist’s desire for others to understand the depth of their work (01:25:41)
• The benefits of living in simplicity and not being attached to outcomes (01:30:47)
• Joshua shares a recent interaction with a younger artist, offering advice on handling the pressures of age and expected timelines (01:37:59)

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Yoshino is a multi-hyphenate artist and the host of Artist Decoded.

Yoshino’s Links:
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