Tom Schaar has accomplished a helluva lot in just 16 years. His skateboarding resume features several “youngest ever” notations, and winning a gold medal in the 2012 at 12 years old is easily at the top of that list of accomplishments. So it’s easy to understand why the creative folks making the documentary, The Search For Freedom, would want to dig into the teenager’s mind.
The movie is about “the human desire to live in the moment and do what makes you feel the most alive.” So each athlete featured was sought out with the purpose of offering some nugget, a beautiful piece of their own story, that could seem profound to most of its audience. And leave it to a teenager to be asked the familiar “why do you do it” and need just one simple word to give the tried and true answer. He’s not clued in to something any of us don’t know. But maybe his ability to remember why he does all this is exactly why Tom Schaar has such a bright future in front of him and a lifetime of accomplishments already in the bucket. Maybe that’s why he makes it look so easy.
Editor’s Note: To see more check out The Search For Freedom, the story of a cultural revolution fueled by the human desire to live in the moment and do what makes you feel most alive.
