Take Flight

Here are two scenes from the 2001 film Yamakasi. Written by Luc Besson -the writer of District B13 and B13 – Ultimatum- and featuring Châu Belle-Dinh, Williams Belle, Yann Hnautra, Laurent Piemontesi and others, this movie is widely understood to be the film that caused the split of David Belle from the Yamakasi team. As such this film holds a notorious place in the history of Parkour which is why we have decided to include two of the film’s most action packed scenes in our video library.

Whether this film was an appropriate commercial use of Parkour or whether it was an “exploitation” of the discipline will continue to be debated for years to come. It may take many years as well before a consensus can be reached as to whether the commercial use of Parkour, such as this film, has helped promote or pervert the art. Regardless of the views in favor of either case, the athleticism displayed in this film is undeniably impressive, and the action itself holds a strong case as representing Parkour for the utility art that it is.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhUAIEJfRpA