Here is a fun edit from Parkour Generation’s 2nd annual Rendezvous event. The video was filmed by Julie Angle and features the Yamakasi founders Yann Hnautra, Châu Belle-Dinh, Williams Belle and Laurent Piemontesi along with Kazuma, the Vigroux Brothers, Forrest, Sébastien Goudot, Daniel Ilabaca and others. This video is an enjoyable watch as it shows the more playful side of Parkour training.
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.
Here is another classic Yamaksi video featuring Yann Hnautra, Châu Belle-Dinh, Laurent Piemontesi, Willams Belle and some of the Yamakasi’s students. Most of the performance and movement is directly attributable to the Yamakasi style, in the case of what is showcased in this video most of it would not be considered Parkour. Nevertheless, as a way to enjoy movement and train, this is all very good for developing the physical capability, including the sense of trust and confidence essential to Parkour. This video was edited by William Belle.
Here is a spectacular Parkour mix-tape featuring the Yamakasi. A handful of their students also perform in the video, but the majority of the footage includes Yann Hnautra, Châu Belle-Dinh, and Laurent Piemontesi. You may recognize many of the locations as being in and around Lisses and Evry, however many of the moves performed are original to the structures and specifically attributable to the Yamakasi’s style. Although there is a noteworthy amount of flips and aesthetic non-necessary movement in many of the sequences, the majority of the action is a pure demonstration of efficient Parkour athleticism. Highly entertaining for the outstanding athletic performance and faced paced action showcased in the video, an excellent music accompaniment also contributes to making this mix-tape extremely engaging for its viewers.
This is an older, but nevertheless superb compilation of great Parkour action. The video features many prominent Tracers including David Belle, Sébastien Foucan, Stephane Vigroux, and members of the Yamakasi to name a few, and contains footage from Le Tuyau, Un Lundi Cool, the Bont Commercial and BBC Commercial both featuring David, Accroches Toi, Speed Air Man, and other prominent videos.
Here is a documentary about the Yamakasi and the Art du Déplacement. Titled Vol au dessus des cités: Génération Yamakasi this film is spectacular to say the least. It has great action, excellent insight and highlights the Yamakasi who are by far some of the best athletes in the world. At 71 minutes in length if you have not seen this then you owe it to yourself to watch it in its entirety.
Note: Of course the Yamakasi don’t call their art “Parkour,” but regardless of the verbiage it is still the same discipline which is why we have posted this video.
Here is a video from Rendezvous I put on by Parkour Generations. The workshop was conducted in London on the 13th and 14th of May, 2007, and prominent instruction was given by Forrest and Dan Edwardes. You may also recognize other famous Tracers who attended the event including Stephane Vigroux, Sébastien Goudot, Kazuma, Cicso, Thomas, and Yann Hanutra and Laurent Piemontesi from the Yamakasi. We posted three videos from Rendezvous II in our What is Parkour? series that we conducted almost a month ago. Unlike this video which highlights the physical training from Rendezvous I, those videos from Rendezvous II exclusively highlighted a questions and answer time with the Yamakasi. Divided into three parts, you can view the videos from that interview by going to our 2nd, 3rd, and 4th installments of that sequence.
Here is the fourth installment of our What is Parkour? series and the last piece of our three part mini-series featuring the Yamakasi. Stay tuned to MisterParkour.com as we end our five part series tomorrow with a rare video of David Belle speaking openly about Parkour and what it means to him.
For part three of our What is Parkour? series we will continue with our mini-series featuring the Yamakasi. Embedded here is video 2 of 3 of the question and answer session that took place at Rendezvous II.
Also, here is another link to a great video we posted a couple weeks ago. Featured in the link below is a short video of David Belle briefly answering the question “What is Parkour?” However, please note that this is NOT the rare David Belle video we have promised to post in this series. That video of David (with the transcribed translation) will be the final installment of our five part series so stay tuned.
For the second installment on our What is Parkour? series we have decided to start a mini-series by posting the first of three videos featuring the Yamakasi. On December 8th, 2007 Parkour Generations put on their second Parkour seminar titled Rendezvous II at the WestminsterAcademySportsCenter in London . Some of those in attendance included the Yamakasi, the Vigroux brothers, Forrest, Dan Edwardes, Kazuma, Sebastien Goudot, Francisco Soto-Tautiva and Thomas Couetdic. At the end of the day of training, the Yamakasi spent almost half an hour questions from those in attendance. This is part 1 of 3 of their answers.
A few weeks ago we also posted a Parkour documentary by TK17. The movie is a full length 90 production titled “Parkour Project: Pilgrimage,” and it takes an in depth look at Parkour and its origins in Lisses, France. The majority of the movie focuses on Lisses, but we decided to include a link to this post because the first 20 minutes specifically does a great job of answering the question, “What is Parkour?”
