Ever since I was young, I was told that French is the language of love, which made no sense to me, but it’s one of those sayings that get tossed around so much they become fact, similar to “Early bird gets the worm,” which I still have trouble buying.
“100% Love For My Homies,” a video out of Southern France, brought up the memory of this saying, and while I’ve never been to France to see for myself this crew that goes by CINQ/A brought validity to the claim.
Marked by a unique use of photo collages and a well-traveled group of up and coming Frenchmen, this homie video has all the camaraderie and talent that failing locker rooms across the globe are always searching for. It touts untapped French spots, a hefty stair count and a sweet reminder to let your homies know you love them.
It’s a week before Valentine’s Day, so if you can spare some love in between scarfing milk chocolate and googling what color roses you should get your sneaky link check out the video and the quick Q&A with filmmaker Quentin Larrede down below.
Q&A WITH CINQ/A FILMER QUENTIN LARREDE
French is the language of love, right? Can you write a pick-up line in French that works on the locals?
Si un grain de sable pouvait dire je t’aime, je t’offrirais le Sahara <3 Let me know if you have the occasion to try it.
What does CINQ/A stand for?
We were 5 friends in high school and if we weren’t at our local skatepark we would spend our time in the same apartment every week-end. So the CINQ is because we were five friends and the A stands for the first letter of apartment. It’s not that deep but we liked the way it sounded so we kept the name!
Selfishly, I’d like to know who the first artist in the video soundtrack is.
It’s Forth Wanderers. I asked the crew to suggest a few sounds and Tylo (the first skater) sent me a lot of great artists with like two thousand plays on Soundcloud. I thought that this particular band was very fitting for Tylo’s style.
In our original conversation, you brought up the crew getting older. Who has the most unique job out of the crew?
There are 3 categories of jobs in CINQ/A: the ones who are skate teachers, the ones who work in audiovisual postproduction and those who are unemployed [laughs].
Where is the most underrated skate destination in France?
In a totally subjective way, I’ll say our hometown, Mont-de-Marsan. There are some crazy spots, like a 14 stair, perfect rail in front of a big church with crosses all along the handrail. It has never been skated. It would be awesome to see someone skate that spot. The picture would make an amazing magazine cover! Also, it’s close to the beach and Spain so it’s a great destination!
Are there any places you want to go that the crew hasn’t been yet?
We really want to discover the eastern part of Europe. We are talking about our next destination at the moment and Hungary tops the list
This is my favorite question to ask filmers. How many glasses of wine/beer before the camera gets too shaky?
The skater’s legs are usually shaking before my camera is but if I have to estimate, I would say around 15 cans of San Miguel!
You said you visited Bilbao while filming, a city known for the Guggenheim and its architecture. Which city amongst the ones you skated has the best skate architecture?
Marseille is pretty good in my opinion, the flatground is nice all around the city, a lot of downhills lead to the harbor and there are some unique spots where you can skate, film clips, hang out while watching the homies skate or talk to the locals. It’s a city where everybody is just outside their house and everyone talks to each other and I think the architecture plays a role in it.
If I were to visit you guys in the South of France, give me three things that we would have to do.
We’ll go skate in Spain (Irun, San Sebastian) and we’ll buy tobacco on our way cause it’s a lot cheaper than in France. During travel, we’ll let you shoot passers-by with a water gun. Afterwards, we can either have a drink and make fun of surfers in Hossegor or have a big BBQ at Angel’s Barn with all the homies.
Can you put me on to a few different artists from your local scene?
I have to say “Les Boulenvrac.” It’s a band playing punk rock satiric music since 1998. The guitarist is Lucas’s father, and our friend Fred, the owner of our local skate shop, was in it too. Be careful if you see them live, because you may get hit by their famous sausage throw into the crowd!
I also have to shout out the two other artists from the video “LeDouble” and “Kyana” who both come from the French new wave rap scene.
Why do you have so much love for the homies?
I spend most of my time with them and I never get bored of it. It’s important to tell your homies you love them so – 100 % love for my homies!
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