Three American rinks close every month, taking with them a gathering place and a sense of community. Phelicia Wright—the daughter of a skate-D.J. mom and skate-guard dad, and the mother of five skaters herself—says skating for her is like church. “If you lose yourself in it,” she says, “you come out feeling brand new.”

Wright and her children are among the star subjects in HBO’s United Skates, a new documentary that will show the culture of skating under threat. The doc will be directed by Dyana Winkler and Tina Brown, and executive produced by John Legend, and is set to debut in February.

According to Vanity Fair, for over five years, the filmmakers traveled across the country, taking overnight buses to far-flung cities, sleeping on the floors of skaters who graciously hosted them, applying for grants, running a Kickstarter campaign, and shooting and editing more than 500 hours of footage.

The film uses deep archival material to chronicle skating’s roots, from the civil-rights era to a Queen Latifah rink show in the 80s, up to present day, and features original interviews with rap artists and rink owners, as mentioned by Vanity Fair. Artists including Vin Rock (Naughty by Nature), Alonzo Williams (World Class Wreckin’ Cru), and Cheryl James and Sandra Denton (Salt-N-Pepa) talk about how rinks provided venues for their shows when no one else would host them. “Roller skating was hip-hop,” says Denton.

United Skates will touch onan immense amount of information in short order with sparkling clarity, twisting from heart-thumping highs to melancholic lows and back again in the world of skate.

“They fought for access to this space,” the directors explain, pointing out that the rink was even a safe space for rival gangs in the 80s and 90s. It’s a story Winkler and Brown—from Hawaii and Australia, respectively—didn’t initially feel was theirs to tell. But the community rallied behind them, quite literally. “Phelicia actually pushed us from behind while we were skating,” says Winkler.