The Lake County Film Festival returns in 2026 for its Sweet 16 edition, celebrating sixteen years of independent cinema with a diverse, ambitious, and international slate of feature and short films. The festival runs March 12–23, 2026.

This year’s festival will screen films at three venues: the College of Lake County in Grayslake, Gorton Center in Lake Forest, and — for the first time — the Antioch Theater in Antioch, expanding the festival’s footprint and access across Lake County.

Gorton Center is proud to be hosting the closing night feature film, “All Skate”!

ALL SKATE is the full history of roller rinks and roller skating as told by a diverse group of people who are currently involved with roller skating and rinks, and through my point of view having grown up in a roller rink built by my grandfather.

We cover everything from the early inline skating inventions, the patented Plimpton four-wheel design which prevailed, and then go though multiple phases of popularity including 1920s skaters including vaudeville performers and silent films, professional roller sports, the Skating Vanities, the 40s/50s during and post WWII when we expanded to over 5000 mostly family-owned roller rinks in the US, to the huge 1970s roller disco era, the return of roller blades in the 80s.

We also visit the times of decline over the years, especially since the 2000s, and the reasons many rinks couldn’t survive, visiting many former roller rinks to see what the buildings hold today, including retail stores, homeless shelters, and a sad return to my family’s rink which is now an indoor shooting range. But we end on a high note, with the amazing roller skating resurgence brought on by Covid, including skating in the Super Bowl for the first time ever in 2024.

Documentary • USA • 2026 • 102 Minutes
Director: April Wright
Writer: April Wright
Producer: April Wright
Editor: April Wright
Cinematographers: Joe Farris, Dustin Perlman, Bryan Sarkinen, JT Seaton, April Wright
Archivist: Ronda Nissen
Subjects: Park Roller Rink (Zion, IL), Myesha McCaskill “The Skate Guru of Chicago,” Jim Turner (Co-Founder National Museum of Roller Skating) at Butler Skateland (Racine, WI), Guptill’s Arena (Albany, NY – Guinness Book World’s Largest), Roller Wave in Brooklyn NY, Moonlight Rollerway (Glendale, CA), Oaks Park Rink (Portland, OR – open since 1906)