New Yorker Festival 2007: Parkour with David Belle

Parkour New York: David Belle talks with Alec Wilkinson
David Belle will discuss, and demonstrate, parkour, the sport he created. Parkour is a system of leaps, vaults, rolls, and landings designed to help a person surmount any obstacles in his path.

David Belle moved to Lisses, a suburb of Paris, at the age of fourteen. Inspired by his father, an acrobat and fireman, and by the French sports theorist Georges Hébert, he began performing stunts on a nearby climbing wall. Through online videos, his sport, whose name he coined, caught on internationally. He has performed in Madagascar, Italy, Germany, and Portugal and will appear in the upcoming film "Babylon A.D."

Alec Wilkinson has been a staff writer for The New Yorker since 1980. He is the author of seven books, including "My Mentor," "Mr. Apology," and, most recently, "The Happiest Man in the World: An Account of the Life of Poppa Neutrino," parts of which first appeared in the magazine. "No Obstacles," his piece on parkour and David Belle, appeared in the April 16th Journeys issue.

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