SAMPARKOUR
SAMPARKOUR, directed by Wiland Pinsdorf, featuring Zico Corrêa. (Via William Gibson, thanks.)
Commercial/music video director Wiland Pinsdorf’s SAMPARKOUR is “a short that reveals the city of São Paulo (Brazil) under the look of Parkour. Where people see obstacles, Zico Corrêa visualizes new possibilities.”
Shot in HD with a 35mm lens adapter, the short is simultaneously dizzying and becalming, presenting Corrêa’s death-defying feats in a breathtaking rush of carefully framed shots and well-paced edits. Today –perhaps more than most days– it is deeply satisfying to witness a collaboration (between filmmaker and athlete, city and gravity) so vital, immediate, and perfectly alive.
June 25th, 2009 at 10:24 pm
That was beautiful, I’d love to see something similar done for more old cities.
June 26th, 2009 at 1:54 am
That was exactly the kind of exhilarating, uplifting experience I needed to see today. I’ve always been fascinated by parkour (possibly due to it being something that my large and ungainly self will never, ever be able to do) and that was wonderful film.
Thanks for sharing.
June 26th, 2009 at 1:58 am
Amen to that, Mer. I love the creativity in parkour. It must be so great to be able to do all this, to see all these possibilities nobody else sees and being able to put them to so much fun. This short brings that across so perfectly. Absolutely wonderful!
June 26th, 2009 at 8:27 am
[…] SAMPARKOUR […]
June 26th, 2009 at 8:28 am
he makes it look effortless.
there’s something about the inherently transgressive nature of parkour that makes it irresistibly endearing.
June 26th, 2009 at 8:43 am
Wonderful little film.
As a child, nothing made me happier, nothing centered me more, than running, top speed, through a forest or similar obstacle course. Even then, I had an inkling of myself and my surroundings bleeding into one. Of not being in the zone, but BEING the zone.
Being introduced to Parkour as an adult, was a milestone. Free running truly is on par with martial arts, dance and, as an artist, the visual medium. Powerful and meditative. There’s a calm in it, that’s difficult to express. I’ve dabbled, but only just, as a previous back surgery keeps me from fully exploring. Although, I stay on the path of pushing further and further, just to see how handicapped, for lack of a more fitting word, I really am.
Either way, it’s lovely to see Parkour still about, working it’s magic on others. Too often I see people who simply don’t get it. Too voluntarily deaf, dumb and blind, to allow their tunnel vision to let light in.
@BigJonno: Never, ever ever ever, say “never”.
June 26th, 2009 at 11:38 am
Interesting idea. I would rather have just seen the city though because it doesnt seem to encompass very much of it. I absolutely adore parkour, have for nearly 10 years and used to do some of the easier things like scaling walls, but I reached a point where I just wasnt strong enough. Here is one of my favorite parkour videos, the quality is low, this is not the original posting, which was removed. http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=5922701
June 29th, 2009 at 7:54 am
Yeah, I’m gonna be that guy that says “Hey, thats not parkour, its free running.”
Hey, thats not parkour, its free running.
Ok, now that we have that out of the way, I would like to say that this looks absolutely stunning. I too, have longed to do such things, but a ruined femur that keeps me in pretty sizeable pain forbids even the simplest of maneuvers (hell, walking even has its challenges sometimes).
July 8th, 2009 at 8:12 am
[…] – Parkour is beautiful […]
July 22nd, 2009 at 1:24 pm
I like parkour – looks like fun. I like well edited video, and this was very pretty. But what got me here was how completely integrated the action, the image and especially the soundtrack are. There are sounds, apparently from the live footage, worked into the music.
I’m curious what came first. If the soundtrack was made to the video it must have been after the final edits. Perhaps this was done like animation, with the soundtrack first.
It all works together very well.
September 18th, 2009 at 7:12 pm
The new season of The Office premiered the other day, and this was the introduction. I LOL’D!