William Strobeck
William Strobeck is an American filmmaker, director, videographer, and photographer based in New York City. Strobeck directed the skate videos cherry, BLESSED, CANDYLAND, STALLION, and PLAY DEAD.
Early life
Born in Syracuse, New York to a single mother, Strobeck grew up with his grandmother, mother, and other family members. His mother was diagnosed with schizophrenia when Will was growing up, which resulted in her absence for a time. Strobeck moved around, living with different family members, until his mother found proper treatment. After receiving treatment and reentering his life, Strobeck's mother encouraged his creativity and freedom. Strobeck describes the void left by his mother's partial absence in his childhood as having a strong influence on his creativity.Filmmaking
As a young teenager in the 1990s, Strobeck first started filming his friends outside the Everson Museum of Art in the center of Syracuse. At the time, the museum considered skating an art form and allowed the skaters to skate the plaza in front of it.In 1996, Strobeck moved to Philadelphia at the age of 17. Strobeck filmed skateboarding during the Love Park skate scene from 1997 until 2003. As the popularity of the Philadelphia skateboard scene grew, Alien Workshop offered Strobeck a daily retainer to be a skate videographer for the company. By 1998, Strobeck had quit community college and was doing deliveries to work on the Alien Workshop video Photosynthesis full time. In 2004, Strobeck self-funded a day in the life film starring Mark Gonzales and Jason Dill, titled DIZZY.
In 2006, Strobeck directed McBeth - Mark Gonzales - The Journal, No. 17 - starring Mark Gonzales, running 12 minutes and released with Krooked Skateboards.
In 2009, Strobeck worked with Gonz and Jason Schwartzman on the music video for "Any Fun" by Schwartzman's Coconut Records solo project.
Strobeck produced a section for TransWorld's The Cinematographer Project, with Jason Dill, Danny Garcia, Austyn Gillette, Mark Gonzales, Jake Johnson, Alex Olson, and Dylan Rieder.
In 2012, Strobeck released a short film, "My Lovely Mess," featuring Chris Kennedy, Lizzi Bougatsos, Chloë Sevigny, Lily Ludlow, Stacy Strobeck, Tara Subkoff, David Clark, Alex Olson, Lil' Naomi, and Natasha Lyonne. "My Lovely Mess" was described by one reviewer as "haunting but often very funny."
Also in 2012, Strobeck began filming his first feature-length video for Supreme called Cherry. cherry was released in 2014, featuring a large variety of skaters in a series of montages accompanied by two parts, one by Paulo Diaz and one shared part by Dylan Rieder and Alex Olson. Cherry, Supreme's first skate video in almost 20 years, received positive reviews from fans and critics.
In 2015, Strobeck released "the red devil" produced by Supreme, filmed in New York and Los Angeles, featuring Kevin Bradley, Jason Dill, Sage Elsesser, Tyshawn Jones, Aidan Mackey, Alex Olson, Sean Pablo, Na-Kel Smith, and Anthony Van Engelen.
In 2015, Strobeck released SICKNESS, a joint Supreme and Thrasher release set in the San Francisco Bay Area, featuring Aidan Mackey, Sean Pablo, Sage Elsesser, Tyshawn Jones, and Kevin Bradley.
In 2016, Strobeck released Pussy Gangster, a 10-minute collaboration with Supreme featuring Kevin Bradley, Sage Elsesser, Ben Kadow, Tyshawn Jones, Sean Pablo, Na-Kel Smith, and others.
In 2016, Strobeck released KING PUPPY, a 5-minute collaboration with Supreme and Nike SB, featuring Kevin Bradley, Sage Elsesser, Eric Koston, Sean Pablo, and Grant Taylor.
In 2018, Strobeck released the 84-minute-long BLESSED, also through the Supreme brand studio. BLESSED features 2018 SOTY Tyshawn Jones, Ben Kadow, Aidan Mackey, Sean Pablo, Vincent Touzery, Jason Dill, Kevin Bradley, Mark Gonzales, Na-Kel Smith, Sage Elsesser, and others.
In 2019, Supreme and Strobeck released CANDYLAND, a feature-length skate video dedicated to Pablo Ramirez.
In March 2021, Strobeck released STALLION, another feature-length video filmed in Milan to coincide with the opening of Supreme's Milan store.
In November 2021, Strobeck released MIND GOBLIN, a 20-minute video filmed in Berlin featuring Tyshawn Jones, Sage Elsesser, Kader Sylla, Ben Kadow, Vincent Touzery, and others.