Staff Pick Premiere: Finding freedom atop skyscrapers

Ian Durkin is a filmmaker and former curator at Vimeo.
Ian Durkin

Nineteen-year-old Kirill is dangling by one hand from the top of a Russian skyscraper. The situation is perilous. His life is literally being suspended by four of his fingers, but the look in Kirill’s eyes is an eerie calm. He is fearless. Known as the “Russian Spiderman” for his documented high-altitude stunts, Kirill is at the fore of Moscow’s “roofing” culture. In roofing, he and his group of friends approach their city’s buildings and infrastructure like a climber sees a mountain. Instead of using a building for the architect’s intended purpose, they see challenge and potential: potential to climb high and see their city from a new vantage, and a challenge to push their personal limits of exploration.

When New York City-based filmmaker Geoffrey Feinberg first saw photos of Kirill roofing, it made him break out in a cold sweat. Feinberg is admittedly afraid of heights, but it was the enigmatic nature of Kirill that drew him into documenting the teenager’s exploits. Feinberg wanted to learn what was going on behind those calm eyes as Kirill stands and hangs inches away from a fatal fall. What Feinberg grew to understand through following Kirill and his group of friends on their roofing missions was the sense of beauty and peacefulness that they were able to find only at the great heights of Moscow’s building tops. So for Feinberg, it was important to convey the escapism of spending time with your friends in this uniquely removed environment.

It was also Kirill and his group of friends’ fearless approach to the city that struck Feinberg during the production of the film. Feinberg recalls that “they let themselves into anywhere they wanted. If we were walking down the street and the group liked the look of a place, they’d just let themselves in, make their way up to the roof and check it out.” That freedom also translates to Kirill’s approach to life — at the age of 19, he dropped out of university and has been ignoring his draft notice for the Russian army ever since.

Beyond the wild heights and the film’s subjects toeing the line between life and death, it is ultimately this infectious celebration of freedom displayed in the film that stayed with the Vimeo curation team and made us excited to make “The Hanging” today’s Staff Pick Premiere. The brazen choice to interact with your surroundings in ways that feel true to yourself is a lesson that we can all learn from. Even if it isn’t leading us to the top of a skyscraper.

Check out more of Vimeo’s Staff Pick Premieres here.

 

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