As part of our new summer US project States of Independence we've invited our favourite 30 American curators, magazines, creatives and institutions to takeover Dazed for a day. 

Oscilloscope – the independent film distributor, started by Beastie Boy Adam Yauch, behind some of the past decade's coolest indie releases like Teenage & 12 O'Clock Boys – is taking over! They share their wealth of knowledge in a creative manifesto, take a look at a batch of new talent, and pen some love letters to the hottest directors…

The freewheeling Baltimore brotherhood who call themselves the 12 O'Clock Boys (because they ride their bikes in a completely vertical position) are a hard fraternity to break in to, let alone get hazed by. Pug – the main character in Lotfy Nathan's documentary 12 O'Clock Boys – is the 12-year-old star whose intrepid spirit doesn't falter when he tries and tries to ride with the pack. The film is a gutsy reverie dealing in the brutalities of broken dreams and fuelled-up, fed up suburban youth. And, filmed over a period of three years, a stunning portrait of life in Maryland's coastal port. Here, director Lotfy Nathan reminisces on the making-of his revved up, raucous doc.

Director Lotfy Nathan: "Pug was a tough and frustrating subject to get anything out of. It was difficult to show where Pug was going with the whole dirt bike thing towards the end of the film because it was not so cut and dry. The hardest thing to actually film was the loss and mourning of Tibba.

There were some really funny things that Pug said too. If I'm going to be honest, it was probably this one night at a house party in West Baltimore where I wasn't actually filming. I was hanging out and dancing with a few girls, I was having fun. Then I walked up to Pug and some of his friends who were sitting against a wall and he was like: 'You know something Lotty, you dance like you're scared of black pussy.' This is definitely not true but it was funny."