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June 19, 2026

Stoked: The Rise and Fall of Gator tracks a falling star

the true crime that's worth your time

A 2002 documentary on Mark "Gator" Rogowski isn't intended as true crime; does it do what successful genre docs do?

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The crime
The 1991 rape and murder of Jessica Bergsten by professional skateboarder Mark "Gator" Rogowski.

The story
I would call Helen Stickler's 2002 documentary Stoked: The Rise and Fall of Gator "watchable," but the print I watched – a muzzy video transfer with echoey sound – doesn't really do the doc justice on the literal, ophthalmological level. 

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