Intro & Interview by Mike Munzenrider
Photos by Mark Dunning, Alex Hupp, Frank Verges & Mike Heikkila
It’s rare that a skate video is so clearly evocative of the time in which it was made. There’s a sense of pandemic emptiness that runs through Terminal, Deep Dish’s latest video, nearly all shot in 2020.
Mark Dunning, lead filmer and editor of the Deep Dish series — now up to eight titles — says one of the reasons he makes videos is to shine a light on Chicago skateboarding, because he says it doesn’t get the attention it deserves. He also says he’d long sought a particular shot of Chicago, showing it as “deserted or forgotten,” something which he says that he finally achieved in Terminal. Perhaps that purposeful emptiness was heightened by the past year.
It was under COVID-19 conditions that Dunning, a year ago living in New York City, says he made his way back to his hometown Chicago. With rumors of New York going into lockdown and the uncertainty behind it, he says he and his girlfriend packed their car and drove west, thinking they’d work remotely for a week before heading back.