Urban exploration is a hot topic these days and the new documentary “Urban Escape” that was first screened at Videology in Brooklyn will have its Paris premiere this Saturday. Featuring familiar New York City urban explorer like Steve Duncan, as well as Bob Unsee in Detroit and Scott Haefner in San Francisco, the film by French reporter Mélanie de Groot Van Embden and photographer David de Rueda follows a host of explorers throughout the United States. The documentary presents an examination of the practice of urban exploration–both the constraints and dangers, and the transcendent reasons why people continue to explore abandoned and inaccessible spaces. “We’re attracted to ruins because they remind us of our mortality, make us see that everything we create is finite and our place in the universe is really small,” says one of the explorers in the trailer.
Over the course of 52 minutes, urban explorers will take viewers to their favorite spots into what many call “real life” far from museums and schools. The film was awarded “Special mention of the Jury” at the Festival des Ecrans de l’Aventure in France and will be shown at other festivals in Europe over the next few months.
 
For our readers in Paris, the film will be shown for free at Cinéma Le Balzac, 1 rue Balzac on March 28th at 1pm. See more information and where it will play next on the film’s Facebook page. To RSVP to the Paris screening or to get in contact with producer Mélanie de Groot Van Embden by email at [email protected].
Read on to see de Groot Van Embden exploration into a subterranean time capsule holding vintage Paris trains or Steven Duncan’s search for the Minetta Brook, a lost river under Manhattan.
Full Cast of Urban Escape: Steve Duncan, Detroit Unseen, Ed Serecky, Kurt, Micah Whatley, Andrew Bisset, Ashley Simoneaux, Stephen Freskos, Scott Haefner.
